Student Achievement

The Assessment of Student Learning at PTS

The faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is committed to excellence in teaching and is always striving to better serve students. But how do we know what we need to do better? That is where the work of assessment comes in. 

The assessment of student learning outcomes at PTS is the practical expression of two things:

• our curiosity about what is happening to our students as a result of our teaching
• the desire to keep the educational promises we make to students when they enroll

Assessment is the systematic way the faculty investigates how we are doing as a team of teachers by looking closely at how our students are doing as a group in relation to the learning outcomes we have for each of our academic programs. We assess some learning outcomes from each program each year, examining a random sample of papers, examinations, projects, theses, sermons, field education reports, and other sorts of assignments, and systematically evaluating what we find.

Once we have come to some conclusions about how students are doing in relation to a particular program learning outcome, we make changes that we think will improve student performance in the future. 

Findings from 2024-2025 assessment activities include:  

• This fall, faculty teams assessed three learning outcomes in the Master of Divinity program, dealing with vocational discernment, worship and prayer, leadership abilities, and resisting racism. Overall the teams found that students are meeting these outcomes.
• Faculty teams also assessed outcomes from the Master’s in Theological Studies program, the AIM program, the Missional Leadership Certificate, and the Doctor of Ministry program. Based on student performance, we made some minor changes to assignments in a couple of required courses to give students additional practice in developing the skills named in the outcomes.
• Meanwhile, this spring a larger faculty group did a comprehensive review of the MDiv program, looking at all assessment data since the program was revised in 2018. In addition to assessment data, the review team conducted surveys of current students and hosted a focus group of graduates, interviewed faculty and student services personnel, and compared our program to that of peer institutions.
• Overall, the MDiv Review team found that students are achieving the learning outcomes of the program and that graduates report a high level of satisfaction. Recommendations for improving the program include reducing the number of required Bible courses from six to five, convening conversations about the field education courses and classroom management, and reviewing current practices for guiding students in vocational discernment within and beyond the classroom.

These are just a few of the many proposals and changes that resulted from recent assessment work, and there will be more to come as we continue to be curious about how our students are doing and working to keep the educational promises we make in each of our programs. Have questions about the assessment of student learning outcomes at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary? Contact Angela Hancock, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, at Click to view e-mail.

Learn more: Institutional Outcomes, Overall Satisfaction with Preparation and Experience, Program Completion and Placement