|
NCEA ACRE IS "One" Good Way To Assess Faith Education, by Mary St. Pierre, The Florida Catholic Newspaper, 01/24/2002
Used with permission from The Florida Catholic Newspaper.
Section: Catholic Schools Week 2002
Edition: ROP
Published: 01/24/2002
Page: B9, 10, 11, 12
NCEA ACRE is "one" good way to assess faith education
Byline: Mary St. Pierre
OK parents, how much do you really know about the Catholic faith? Guaranteed, if after years of being out of the classroom you were given the National Catholic Educational Association Assessment of Catechesis/Religious Education (NCEA ACRE) assessment, results would equate a sound idea of your faith strengths and where a little enlightenment might be needed.
The NCEA ACRE assessment designed to be taken by students in the fifth, eighth, and 11th grades is a method of evaluating how well students are absorbing their faith. It is not the only method used to assess such information, but those who use it feel it is a notable gauge for estimating how students assimilate the Catholic faith.
In using the assessment, Brian Lemoi, director of religious education for the Diocese of St. Petersburg, has determined it is an integral part to both affirming and challenging all involved in faith formation efforts, but is vigilant in professing that faith cannot be completely measured by any one evaluation.
"This is not a test but a survey instrument and assessment tool for program goals," Lemoi said. "It is a critical piece that we can use as sort of an evaluation of the efficacy of a curriculum."
The Diocese of St. Petersburg adopted the policy of using the NCEA ACRE and the Information for Growth (IFG) assessments in 1994 after extensive surveying of pastors, parish directors of religious education, Catholic school administrators and parents. The IFG is exclusive to religious education teachers, and individual answers go back to the test taker. The purpose of adoption was to have an additional means of gathering information about the effectiveness of religious education programs in the faith formation of young people.
"The key to the one assessment (NCEA ACRE) is prior to using, teachers make some predictions as to where they think their students will respond well and areas of concern that might be a weakness," Lemoi said.
Individual results from the NCEA ACRE and IFG assessment are compared to a national profile of students and religious education teachers. An overall report, which measures religious knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, practices and perceptions is then provided to school and parish site directors for review.
"The results of the assessments are helpful for a number of reasons but its primary use of information is instrumental in the selection of textbooks and materials," Lemoi said. "It also helps us plan for providing additional service training to our catechists or supplement regular classroom materials."
With regard to the NCEA ACRE student assessment, Diana Dudoit Raiche, assistant executive director in the Department of Religious Education at the National Catholic Education Association, endorses it as thorough in its evaluation of Catholicity. The NCEA ACRE content specifications which were updated in 2001, are drawn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Protocol for Catechetical Materials put out by the Office for the Catechism at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Questions on the NCEA ACRE were also based on the directives in the new General Directory for Catechesis (GDC, 1997), as well as documents on Catholic Social Teaching, and the bishops letters with regard to teaching human sexuality.
The primary focus of the NCEA ACRE is on what's essential to the Catholic faith. The content specifications for primary elements are organized into faith knowledge domains. The areas include:
* God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
* Church: One, holy, catholic and apostolic.
* Liturgy and sacraments.
* Revelation: Scripture and faith.
* Life in Christ: Personal morality and Catholic social teaching.
* Church history.
* Prayer/religious practices.
* Catholic faith literacy.
Key concepts for each domain provide comprehensive coverage of what is to be taught and learned. Additionally, the questions covering the key concepts under each domain are theologically, catechetically and psychometrically (mental measurement) sound. Second the affective questions relate to the content specifications and elicit responses from students about what they believe, as well as how they live out those beliefs in practices, attitudes and behaviors.
"What is more, NCEA ACRE was created collaboratively with the help of theoreticians (a person who forms theories) and practitioners organized into five different working committees," Raiche said. "The final question forms were reviewed by several bishops, diocesan catechetical leaders, as well as pastoral and academic theologians for adequate content coverage. NCEA ACRE has received high marks from outside reviewers as well as publishers of catechetical materials."
Before a Catholic school or parish-based religious education program administers NCEA ACRE, NCEA recommends the principal, religion program director, or religion department chairperson engage in a curriculum alignment review process which NCEA provides with the assessment materials. In that way, Raiche acknowledged, the school or parish can match the local curriculum to NCEA ACRE at each level. If NCEA ACRE covers areas not included at the school or parish, consideration should be given to providing greater emphasis to such curriculum content areas. To the contrary, if the school or parish covers all the content areas, plus possibly additional topics, that may be a signal for local sites to have NCEA's outsourcer send up to 20 additional questions that cover these topics for scoring and reporting.
"Because NCEA ACRE is constructed using sound scientific methods, these assessments take the guesswork' out of what can truly be judged as a success or curriculum strength and what can be judged as a failing or curriculum challenge," said Raiche. "Schools and parishes are pleased to know not only that their students perform well on NCEA's student assessment, but specifically where they perform well and where they need additional work with content on appropriation of faith."
With regard to the recent revision development of NCEA ACRE, it went through a cultural and language bias review before being released, and was field tested with over 9,000 students during the spring of 2001 to ensure adequate psychometric properties of the questions that would be used in the final form. The affective questions were field tested through live interviews with students at all levels to insure understandability of a question's true intent.The process for this revision took two years.
Schools and parishes who have adopted the NCEA ACRE assessment, according to Raiche, are pleased to know not only that their students perform well, but also welcome information results stating specifically where they perform well and where they need additional work with content or appropriation of faith.
"Some principals and directors plot a graph by domain to see how their students do from year to year," said Raiche. "With the change in a textbook series one year, a parish director showed me that in one domain student scores soared, whereas in scores for religious terms fell."
While the students did well on core concepts with the textbook change, they did not do as well recognizing the assessment vocabulary section .
"Instead of seeing this as a negative, this director interpreted the data in a positive light," said Raiche. "She then worked with the teachers to correlate the faith terms of the next text with the common faith vocabulary in the assessment."
NCEA ACRE does cost a diocese, school or parish money (Approx. $4 per student for NCEA members and $5.25 for non-members). Raiche believes those who utilize both the NCEA ACRE and IFG will end up saving money by analyzing assessment results before purchasing books and other resources to ensure they are getting the materials needed for well-rounded faith education.
"In the spiritual life, we are accustomed to taking stock' of our spiritual progress and spiritual reality," said Raiche. "Catholics grow up knowing that there is a need to assess or evaluate where we are spiritually if we are to grow in the spirit. Using statistics as an ally, NCEA ACRE offers an avenue for such a spiritual checkup' from a faith content and appropriated faith perspective."
So parents, are you ready for just one test question?
When we say the Bible is inspired, we mean that:
A) Reading it prayerfully inspires us to lead holy lives.
B) It is used in sacred actions such as the Mass and sacraments.
C) The Holy Spirit guided the authors of the Bible.
D) Every word in the Bible is true since God dictated it word for word.
Send your answers to Mary St. Pierre at mstpie7683@aol.com
|
National Catholic Educational Association
