Catholic schools assess knowledge of faith through NCEA's ACRE

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
January 27, 2005

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sioux City not only participate in assessment tests that measure such things as proficiency ratings in math, science and reading, but they also take one to measure their knowledge of the Catholic faith.

For the last three years, all schools in this diocese have taken the ACRE 

Kevin Vickery, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Sioux City, explained that this is a standardized test but not a norms test. It measures against other students nationally who took it at the same time.

NCEA began offering religious education assessments for students in the late 1970s. NCEA's ACRE became available for use in August 2001. As a multilevel tool, NCEA ACRE is appropriate for students in grade 5 (Level 1), grades 8-9 (Level 2), and grades 11-12 (Level 3). In the diocese of Sioux City, Vickery said that students in the fifth, eighth and eleventh grade take the ACRE test.

Linda Ebel, director of curriculum and instructional services for the diocese, said the test was developed and based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the most recent church documents.

"All of our students take this, including those that are attending the Catholic schools that may not be of the Catholic faith," said Vickery. "The incredible piece is that all students - no matter if they are Catholic or not - do extremely well on these assessments."

Used by Catholic schools and parish-based religious education programs, NCEA's ACRE is an integrated approach to assessment offering both faith knowledge (cognitive domain) as well as beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and practices (affective domain) sections.

From the diocesan perspective, the superintendent noted that he is interested in identifying the peaks and valleys in performance. For instance, when he looks at the fifth grade domain it raises the question for Vickery as to why the students score low in church history. And when studying the results for the pillars, he can see that one of the greatest challenges is in dealing with the issues of morality.

"What we need to do then is examine how we are providing resources to the local schools to increase their skills and abilities to raise those areas," said Vickery. "We also hope that the schools at the local level are also examining their data to determine where they are low. The tricky part is that you can't take away from what you are doing well at."

One way to increase a students skills and knowledge without taking away from their strengths, he noted, is by infusing information throughout the curriculum and not just in the formal religion class. For instance, during a reading assignment if the story centers on making a good or bad choice, then the teacher could point out that a particular choice should be made based on good, Christian morality.

"I know that we are teaching very sound moral values, but in a world that has a lot of amoral messages out there, we have to work very hard at making that a foundation piece," said Vickery.

Like the traditional academic assessment tests, Ebel said that by tracking scores of the ACRE test from year to year identifies if schools are improving in certain areas or if they are falling behind one year in a category with previous strong marks.

"The schools get the information and they can compare how they are doing at the local level to the rest of the schools," she said.

Leslie Kirkpatrick, religion department chair at Gehlen High School in Le Mars, pointed out that they use results of the assessments quite extensively.

"We come from such a strong system. Dick Seivert, our guidance counselor, is so passionate about the ITEDs that we incorporated that mentality into our ACRE results well. That's what we are and what we are about," she noted. "We really wanted to analyze them and look at them to see what we are doing well and what we are missing the boat on."

If they discovered any shortcomings in the assessment results, Kirkpatrick said they made sure that the tested students got the information in a later grade. They also adapted the curriculum in the younger grades to ensure they were getting the information at the right level.

She stressed the need to continually evaluate the curriculum and programs.

Gehlen has worked to carry over theology knowledge into other curriculum areas. Kirkpatrick said theology can be "quite interdisciplinary." In strong education systems, she added everything "should feed off one another. At Gehlen we are proud of where our program is at. We do continue to push ourselves and make ourselves stronger. We live in a society that is spiritually bankrupt in a lot of ways, so we want to put a person out there in the world that does know quite a bit about their faith because it will pass on to others in the people they marry and their own children."

Even many of the grade schools use the results of the assessment test quite thoroughly.

Robert Meyer, principal at St. Rose of Lima School in Denison, said they actually look through every question. They evaluate the curriculum and look at what they are teaching prior to these tests.

"We make adjustments to our curriculum to make sure that the things which are deemed important are being covered," he said.

Meyer mentioned that one portion of the test is more of an attitude segment in view of the church's teachings. This type of information can be incorporated into various areas of instruction.

"I think that a lot of times in education, if things are not tested then they are not taught and that just doesn't mean religion. It can happen in math, science or any of the fields," he said. "If you are not tested, you have a tendency to think that it is not important and it can be overlooked."

Just as job descriptions help people determine what their main tasks are, Meyer said the ACRE helps them narrow the field down as to what they should teach.

Michael Sweeney, principal of Holy Cross School in Sioux City, said assessment tests were needed because it is important for schools to evaluate how much the students learn and how well the curriculum matches what they need to learn.

"It is a self-evaluation tool for our teachers," he said.

Along with measuring knowledge, he said it can help determine where the students are at in their faith journey.

"We plant a lot of seeds in the elementary school and sometimes we don't see how they flourish and grow when the students get into high school and college," said Sweeney. He added that it is affirming when they hear from high school teachers how well students are doing with such things as Gospel values or service.

Ebel explained that while the religious education knowledge is checked by this test in fifth, eighth and eleventh grade, there is a continuity of material that is expected for students to retain all the way through. For instance, eighth graders will have to remember things they learned in earlier grades.

Testing at the fifth grade, Sweeney added, is cumulative of everything they have learned since kindergarten as well as from their parents. This helps to evaluation the K-5 program.

Ebel pointed out that this year they happen to be studying religion and faith formation in the curriculum, so they are taking a look at the results of ACRE to see where gaps may exist.

Along with looking at the big picture, Ebel stressed the importance to look at the individual schools, because the eighth grade assessment may cover information in one part of the test that some schools may cover in the ninth or tenth grade.