ACRE 2021

Assessment of Children / Youth
Religious Education (ACRE)

Overview

Each year during the month of January, the NCEA IFG: ACRE instrument (ACRE) is administered in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to assess religious education efforts in all our parish programs and Catholic schools.

Below you will find information about ACRE materials, important dates and deadlines, interpreting your results, and using ACRE data to improve your religious education efforts.

For additional information, contact Ken Ogorek in the Office of Catechesis or Mary McCoy in the Office of Catholic Schools.

 

Changes coming for ACRE

In June 2018, the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) changed their ACRE processing provider and made some improvements to the ACRE administration experience. My Catholic Faith Technologies is the new company to order materials from and mail results to. We are no longer working with Educational Testing Services (ETS). Please be attentive to these changes as you prepare to administer ACRE in January 2019.

New ACRE website launched November 2018!

Go to https://www.nceaifg.com/

ACRE Dates for the 2021 - 2022 Year

ACRE administration will be January 3, 2022 - February 1, 2022

ACRE Materials

To Order ACRE Materials:

  • Go to https://www.nceaifg.com/ or call 1.800.707.6232
  • If they ask for a diocesan code, our Archdiocese of Indianapolis code is "067"
  • Items to order:
    • Test booklets (2013 ed.) + answer sheets (2018 ed.) - one per student OR Online Administration Code in lieu of paper/pencil tests
    • Old Test Booklets may be used as long as they are 2013 edition
    • Old Answer Sheets may NOT be used; new ones have been designed effective 2018
    • You may be reimbursed for old answer sheets until 06/30/19. Go to https://www.nceaifg.com/ for instructions.

ACRE Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

ACRE Administration Manual

Contact for Support

  • For questions regarding ACRE administration in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, please contact Jim Wood in the Office of Catechesis, jwood@archindy.org or 317.236.1569

ACRE Scores

A Note about ACRE Scores:

  • These are standardized scores and should not be compared to those on a typical grading scale where 95% = A, 86% = B etc.
  • Scores should be read in light of hours available for instruction. 
    • For Catholic schools, this is 60-120 hours annually.
    • Parish catechetical programs offer a minimum of 30 instructional hours annually.

Improving ACRE Scores

How to Understand Archdiocesan Scores

The following ACRE Results are called Archdiocesan average scores. This is how they are measured:

After all the parish faith formation programs administer ACRE and receive their individual parish results, the CAL Testing company who processes the tests takes all those parish results and measures them together to come up with one average score for parishes in the Archdiocese. This allows an individual parish to look at their parish scores in each domain and pillar, and compare them to the Archdiocesan average score, to see if their parish results were above or below the average proficiency level in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

The same process is completed measuring all the Catholic school test scores together and the youth ministry test scores together. Because hours of instruction vary greatly between Catholic schools, youth ministry programs, and parish faith formation, they are each measured and scored in their own category. Comparing youth ministry average scores with parish faith formation scores or Catholic school scores will not yield an accurate result.  

After reviewing Archdiocesan average scores, you may wish to compare results with ACRE national average scores listed below.

 

ACRE Scores for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis

Parish

Catholic School

NCEA National ACRE Scores

Local site Links: