Accelerated Christian Education, more commonly known as ACE, is a Christian curriculum which emphasizes the individual student with ample repetition and full mastery of the material.

The Basics

Ace is a curriculum which uses booklets called Paces. Each Pace booklet contains: revision of previous concepts, new concepts, check ups, self tests, and a final Pace unit test. Each student must master the Pace before they can move on to the next booklet in the series.

Mastery

The Pace booklet is mastered by the pupil only when she achieves an 80% or higher on the test for that Pace. Once this is accomplished, she can earn a star and confidently move on to the next Pace. Advancement therefore is based on mastery, not time.

Although there is no designated timeline for finishing a Pace, it is good to have an approximation when planning out the year. Each pace will take approximately 3 weeks to complete. Answer keys are available to check ongoing work as well as the self tests, check ups, and final Pace tests. Report card templates as well as motivational charts are all available for purchase. All of this to say, it is very easy to act as teacher, motivator, and parent with all of these additional materials.

ACE is extremely easy to implement, which might be the perfect solution for busy families.

Goals

Students have many goals they can work toward while using this curriculum. There are star charts, personal goal cards, self tests, and Pace tests. The star chart is a visual motivator which gets filled in with glittery goodness as subjects and Paces are mastered.

Free Online Diagnostic Tests

To ensure your child begins the curriculum at an appropriate level, ACE has several Diagnostic Tests which can accurately determine his abilities. Diagnostic Tests can be taken in four areas: Math, English, Reading Comprehension, and Spelling. Upon completion of the Diagnostic Test, you have determined exactly which Pace your child is ready to begin.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Your child may have tested differently in the four Diagnostic Tests. For example, he may have excelled in English but had difficulty with Math. In this example, the ACE curriculum easily allows him pursue English Pace levels at a higher grade level while taking lower numbered Math Paces. Flexibility per subject is simple with ACE.

Examples of Grade Specific Content:

Affordable

ACE is an affordable curriculum. Pace booklets range from $3-$5 each. In addition to the Paces, only answer keys, test keys, and a few readers are needed to be purchased. Since ACE is a well known curriculum, often these extra readers can be purchased at used home-school curriculum sales. There are no expensive textbooks, devices, apps, nor software needed.

Counterbalance

  • Only a small amount of new objectives are introduced in each Pace booklet. Therefore, you might want to consider whether the amount of new material is given at the right pace for your child. Some students might find this curriculum moving along too slowly and not challenging enough. My daughter was in this category and we used the curriculum for only one year in elementary.
  • ACE relies a lot on rote learning. Consider whether this is what your child needs at this moment in time.
  • Taking a look at online reviews, I would tend to agree that ACE is better suited for elementary not middle nor high school grades.