Toronto's Catholic board will be testing the faith of its Grade 4 students – or at least their knowledge of it – in a controversial new religious exam.

The unique "religious knowledge test" was piloted in five schools last year and was to be rolled out in all Grade 4 classrooms this May, although half of the board's 12 trustees have already opted out.

The test asks students to fill in the missing words to the Lord's Prayer or explain why "Jesus is the light of the world," among other things.

"Even though there are a variety of things that separate (public and Catholic) boards, the tangible thing you see is the teaching of religion," said trustee John Del Grande.

Testing is a way to ensure the quality of the religious education and show that it is "an important part of the school curricula," he added.

Teachers, however, argue students already write provincial literacy and numeracy tests in Grades 3, 6, 9 and 10 and this just adds to the burden.

"We're worried that it kind of minimizes what Catholic education is all about," said Anthony Bellissimo, president of the 4,000-member Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers.

"We measure more by living out the faith. I mean it's good to know the Ten Commandments, but what if a school doesn't get 75 per cent (of students passing) but does all kinds of social justice initiatives? Are they going to say that school isn't good enough?"

Del Grande says the test will be used to pinpoint areas of weakness or schools that may need help in delivering programming, and that neither schools nor students will be penalized for low marks.

The test will take place this May in 77 schools across six wards of the Toronto Catholic District School Board at a cost of about $12,000.

No other public Catholic schools in Ontario are believed to offer such a test. In the U.S., private Catholic schools in about 12 dioceses take part in ACRE (Assessment of Catechical and Religious Education) yearly. Tests, with multiple choice and open-ended answer questions, are also written in various grades in some Australian schools.

Trustee Sal Piccininni, whose schools will not write the test, said those in the community he spoke to "found it to be quite silly."

"Our faith is tested every day, with our morals and the way we live our lives," he said. "We don't need to put pen to paper on that."

A January letter sent to all parent councils from Toronto Catholic elementary teachers notes that "in all of our religious education courses, at all levels, there are ample tools of assessment of religious knowledge ... A standardized test of religious knowledge is not only limited in scope, it is redundant ..."

But Oscar Correia, a parent council chair who is also a veteran educator in the Catholic system in Ontario, said he personally "believes in the integrity and accountability" such tests provide.

Just go to any church mass where children are involved, he said, and they generally don't know what's going on.

While agreeing faith is something people build through experience, he said "you have to give children the basis and the foundation of the concepts." Correia has been told some teachers skimp on religious instruction, using the time to work on numeracy and literacy to make sure students do well on the provincial tests, because "that's where they are going to be accountable."

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The problem with that is, with church attendance declining, religious instruction really has fallen to the classroom, he said.

"The school has become the new church."

In the pilot test last year, more than three-quarters of Grade 4 students met the expected level of knowledge, as did about 84 per cent of Grade 7 students who took the test.

That indicates "the instruction in religious education that our students receive is very good and that there is a very good to excellent retention of the basic tenets of our faith and liturgical practices," said a report by board staff.

Del Grande said trustees and staff seemed to be divided on testing, so last year he offered five of his schools as guinea pigs. Some parents barred their children from taking the test, which is fine, he said.

"In essence, it's testing program delivery – not an aspect of your faith or whether you go to church or not," he said.

He said if scores in this round are as high as they were in the pilot, this might be something the board only conducts every five years.

If the results vary, maybe teachers need to look at how they are teaching, or the board to provide different materials. Del Grande said he'd like to call it something other than a "test" because "it's not the testing of the children, it's the testing of the program."

John Podgorski, co-ordinator of religious education and family life education for 20 years at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, said his board rotates "system exams" through different subject areas, including religious education, in high schools but hasn't heard of others testing younger students in this way.

"If I proposed it to my board, I don't think it would go forward," he said. "The educational goals associated with religious education ... are designed to draw forth some of the deeper questions about life, deeper values like your sacred dignity as a person, the value of friendship, family, community, justice in the world – those are the kinds of deeper questions posed through religious life programs."



