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Report of Survey of Academic Support Programs
in ATS Seminaries

117 ATS schools responding
Not all participants responded to every question. Consequently all percentages are calculated on the number of total responders for that question.

Section I-Personal Information

A1-A5-- The first five questions of the survey ask for the name and position of person completing the questionnaire, the school, the address, and the email address.

Deans of the seminaries comprised by far the largest percentage answering the survey with registrars a distant second. These figures show that most academic service programs come under the purview of the academic dean and are only a portion of a larger responsibility.

A6. Level of education

BA-7%
MA-18%
PhD-53%
DMin-15%
ThM-5%
Other

A7. Work Experience/educational degree

English-8%
Theology-31%
Education-23%
Administration-32%
Development-2%
Other-5%

Questions A6 and A7 inquire about the education and work background of the respondent. Fifty percent have experience in theology and/or administration while only 23% were educators and/or English professors. Considering the high percentage of the respondents who hold religious degrees, it appears that seminaries may believe that students' academic challenges are not an "education issue" but one of theology.

A8. Does your institution have any programs, formal or informal that provides students academic support?

Yes-89%
No-11%
Most problematic responses to the Survey stemmed from the failure to adequately explain what was meant by the term "formal program." Our intention was to define "formal program" as any institutionally approved academic outreach separate from classroom instruction, with "informal programs" being defined as any help a student might receive on an unofficial basis. Responders to the survey used a variety of interpretations for these terms. Even though the data in this section is not quantifiable, the answers still provide an interesting sketch of what is occurring in our seminaries.

A9. What percentage of your job time is spent on academic support services?

10%--69%
25%--18%
50%--10%
75%--.5%
100%--.5%
Since over sixty percent indicated that only 10% or their job time was spent on academic support services, it seems clear that, although seminaries say they are concerned about these new pedagogical challenges, the data seem to indicate that schools are unwilling/unable to make this a priority issue.

Section II-Program Information
General Data

B1. If you have a formal program of support services, how long has it been in existence?

Sixty-three (52% of those responding) of the seminaries indicated having a "formal program" for an average age of seven years. These results could suggest an artificial representation of what is happening in our seminaries as I believe that this question was very widely interpreted: for one participant the Academic Dean helping a student with a paper was considered "formal" while other responders interpreted "formal" as a dedicated Center that works with many students. It is interesting that the "length" of the programs ran from just beginning to over thirty years.

B2. If your program has its own physical space, where is it located? (e.g. library, admin. building)

B3. Where do you meet with students? (check all that apply)

In your program's own space-47%
Library-2%
Dorms
Another building on campus-2%
Off campus
Other (where) -38%
The fact that 53% reported that their programs do not have a discrete space suggests that many support services are parceled out on an "as needed basis" and that most seminaries do not have a separate location where students can regularly receive help. Administrators' offices was the most common responses to the "other" category.

B4. Types of services offered (check all that apply)

English as a Second Language-51%
Specialized services for students with learning disabilities-42%
Specialized services for students with physical disabilities-27%
Help with reading strategies-58%
Help with writing-91%
Language tutoring-43%
Humanities introduction (i.e. pre-philosophy/pre-theology studies)-14%
General Computer Skills-42%
Software specific skills (e.g. Bibleworks )-23%
Study strategies-52%
Workshops for students-48%
Seminars for faculty ("Working with students who have learning disabilities)-22%

There are duplicate responses because many schools reported that they had programs in several categories. Writing, reading, and ESL appear to be the most frequently perceived areas of need. Schools responded overwhelmingly (91%) to providing writing tutoring and over 50% provided help with reading and ESL (English as a Second Language). Only 42% of the schools reported offering services for students with learning disabilities even though the law mandates such accommodations for any "program or activity accepting federal financial assistance" (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973). Several schools maintained that their seminaries didn't "have any students with learning disabilities." This may be more of a case of a "don't ask don't tell" environment than a lack of students with disabilities.

B 5. Rate the library's role in providing support services ( 1 being very involved to 5 being not involved).

Participants ranked the library's role as just above average--3.3

Students
C1. Total number of students enrolled in your institution in AY 2001-2002.

Schools reported student enrollment in a variety of ways: many considered all enrolled students (both part and full time); others responded with the FTE; while still others counted on-campus undergraduate Bible colleges in their numbers. Because of this confusion, the FTE reported on the ATS website was used. Even this average is distorted because of three very large schools that participated in the survey. Omitting three very large schools (Fuller Theological Seminary, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary) drops the average Survey FTE from 244 to 220 students.

C2. Number of individual students who used your services in AY 2001-02.

The 70% response rate with an ave. of 44 students
does not include New Orleans Theological Seminary reporting 2,000 contacts, and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary reporting 500 contacts.

C 3. Do you keep tract of "student contacts?" If you keep tract of "student contacts," what is the total number during AY 2001-02? (student contact: one student, in person, using services. Once student could come to you ten times resulting in 10 "student contacts")

The vast majority of schools (87%) indicated that they do not keep formal records of student contacts. The 15 schools that do know the exact contact number report helping an average of 24% of the student population.

C4. In your estimation, what percentage of students who use your services do so more than once?

0%--1%
0-20%--42%
20-50%--13%
50-75%--22%
75-100%--2%
N/A-30%
89 schools responded positively

C5. Reasons for initial student contacts (check all that apply)

Faculty referral-75%
Admissions referral-50%
Student decides on own-76%
Peer referral-23%
Referral from a social services agency
Referral from judicatory/ordaining body
There are many duplicate answers from the 111 schools that responded positively.

C6. Do you give pretests to incoming students with the purpose of gauging academic rediness?

Yes-32%
No-58%
114 responded positively
Forty percent of the seminaries reported that they gave some sort of pretest to gauge a student's academic readiness. I suspect that this question was widely interpreted to mean a Bible test or a battery of reading, writing, and personality tests. While the Survey was not constructed to ask detailed questions about the nature of individual pre-testing programs, colleges and universities frequently administer pretests to gauge writing skills and determine reading speed and comprehension in order to place students in remedial programs if necessary. We can only assume that seminary administrators responding positively to this question had similar pre-testing objectives in mind.

C7. If your institution thinks that a student might have academic difficulties, is the student           

Encouraged-51% Expected-29% Required-34% to seek your services or take a specific class?

89 responded positively
Even when it is strongly suspected that a student might struggle academically, few tangible services are offered. Of the 34 schools that "require" students to use services, eleven offer some sort of remedial course.

C8. Please estimate, in descending order, what types of students use your services (1 being the most frequent group of users, to 5 being never or very infrequently)

International students-1.9
Students with learning disabilities-2.8
Older returning students needing skills refreshment-2.7
Students needing remedial assistances-2.6
Good students who want to do better-4.3
Students from minority populations (native speaking minorities, women)
98 positive responses
It seems that seminaries readily follow the common practice of providing assistance to non-native speakers of English to an "expert" for help.

Tutors/Consultants
(for purposes of this survey, we will refer to the personnel as tutor/consultants)
One third of the schools checked that the questions in this part of the survey were not applicable to their situation.

D1. Number of tutors/consultants in the program who work directly with students (please include everyone who works directly with students).

4.5 average from 79 responding schools. But when New Orleans' 75 tutors are excluded the average drops to 3.5.

D2. Tutors/consultants are (indicate all that apply).

Peer-54%
Faculty-48%
Professional staff-61%
Other-13%
NA-20%
92 positive responses
The fact that the types of tutors falls evenly distributed between peers, faculty, and professionals suggests that schools believe that "anyone" with a theology background can be an effective tutor.

D3. Compensation for tutors

Course Credit-13%
Work-study-26%
Release Time-2%
Volunteer-17%
Per-hour wage-69%
NA-51%
76 positive responses

D4. Total number of hours per week tutors/consultants are available to work with students (not including administrator's time)

Average 15 Hrs. per week NA-38%

D5. Number of hours per week that the administrator is available to work with students.

48 schools responded with hours ranging from 1 to 55 per week
These data indicate that many schools do not have significant programs, and even those who do have services on a limited basis requiring only limited staff. Very few schools have a center that is open to help students all day.

Section E--Involvement of Faculty
Faculty
Each of these questions was answered 1-5 with 1 being the highest

E 1. Has the faculty been instrumental of the development and advocacy of the program--mean 2.53

E 2."Response to Faculty Seminars"--excluded because 61% non responders

E 3. Have faculty made any curriculum changes as a result of program--mean 2.53

E 4. How often do faculty refer students to services? --mean 2.85

E 5. To what extent have faculty feedback indicated increased student success--mean 2.71

E 6. Have faculty become more aware of learning styles and alternative approaches--mean 2.85

nonresponses for E1, E3-5 averaged 25%

Very little variation is observable if only ordinal data is examined. But on closer inspection of the responses, it is clear that of faculty advocacy is the most significant factor in the development of programs and that when made aware, faculty are open to modifying curricula to meet students' needs.

Section III--Implications of the Program

F1. What constraints hamper the success of your program? (rank in chronological order with 1 being the highest)

_____Space
_____Faculty Support
_____Administrative Support
_____Budget
_____Tutors/consultant (availability, training)
_____Student schedules
_____Other
_____NA
We believe that this question was misconstrued. Participants were to rank six constraints (space, faculty support, administrative support, budget, tutors, and student schedules) in chronological order of importance. Often one answer was assigned several values and other constraints were left blank. However, a close examination of the responses indicates that space and budget were by far the most problematic areas.

F2. If you do not have a program why do you think this is the case?

Most participants indicated that their schools were small and their budgets too tight for formalized programs. Many seminaries also responded that academic difficulties were dealt with individually, informally, and on an as-needed basis. Still other schools reported that they were part of larger institutions that had programs where students could be referred. Only three participants responded that there was no sense of really needing academic support services because, as one school answered, "this is graduate school, after all." 

F3. What indicators of the success of your program do you have?

Responses included numbers of students seeking help, student's performance, greater self-confidence of older returning students, improved grades, increased comfort level in courses, and feedback from faculty.

F4. Is there anything else you would like to tell about your program?

Responses included numbers of students seeking help, student's performance, greater self-confidence of older returning students, improved grades, increased comfort level in courses, and feedback from faculty.

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