Can anyone tell me about ACE curriculum?

[tricia]

This was just ran by me a bit ago and I've never heard of it. Anyone who uses it or has used want to share?

[LNC]

I used it, several years behind grade level, with my special needs son. It is a nice workbook curriculum for that purpose. I would have continued with it if I hadn't enrolled him in a special ed class.

 

It definately isn't classical! I'm not sure if it would be college prep? I'm sure there are graduates of ACE homeschools and schools that went to college. There are more families who have used it on the Homeschool reviews message board. The workbook pages are color and have a lot of cartoons about ACE and his sister Christie.

 

If you want the ease of a workbook with a more rigorous scope and sequence I would recommend Christian Light.

Edited November 9, 2009 by LNC

[SilverMoon]

If you're going for classical, ACE won't fill your needs.

 

I used ACE myself as a child and don't recommend it. :tongue_smilie: It's very dry, reads like stereo instructions, and it rams completely unrelated Bible verses down your throat. I quickly learned how to predict what would be on the test, memorized it, and got straight As. I could flawlessly answer the two questions on the test about Isaac Newton, but I barely knew anything about the man beyond that.

 

I used the boxed sets for grades 5 through 10, and parts of it past that. I've even been to the school where skirts had to touch the floor when you knelt, and you really did have to put a wee flag up on top of your desk to get an adult's attention. 😉

Edited September 10, 2023 by SilverMoon

[NavyWifeandMommy]

I have not use this program but a friend of mine has with three of her children and now her sister now uses it. They both really like the program. On busy days you can just go thru the workbooks and add to it on the slower days. To me it sounds similar to Lifepacs and I used those for 1st and 3rd grade.

[Zoo Keeper]

SilverMoon said:

If you're going for classical, ACE won't fill your needs.

 

It's very dry, reads like stereo instructions, and it rams completely unrelated Bible verses down your throat. I quickly learned how to predict what would be on the test, memorized it, and got straight As. I could flawlessly answer the two questions on the test about Isaac Newton, but I barely knew anything about the man beyond that.

 

:iagree:I've never used it myself; but I have friends and family who did use it and dry and boring seems to be the general opinion. I have discussed it in depth with two graduates of an ACE program, and they felt one of the biggest flaws was that it simply requires the student to read over the material, regurgitate a couple (highly predictable) facts, and move on. Like the above quote seems to indicate, no real thinking required. I suppose in a home setting, some of these flaws could be corrected, but I think I would prefer to use something more meaty and interesting to begin with.

Edited January 28 by Zoo Keeper

[Tidbits of Learning]

Never used it, but when I was in the 9th grade and my sister in the 5th my Mom took us to view a school that did use it. The person touring us was going on about how it was up to standards and even showed us an example of math or history or something. My sister answered it on the first try. The kicker was it was the 9th grade pace he was trying to show me.

Needless to say, we didn't enroll at the school.

[homeschoolally]

There are TONS of reviews on ACE at homeschoolreviews.com. You can read perspectives from ACE graduates there as well. You could easily spend hours reading there, lots of great info on it.

 

We used it for a little while in early elementary, but I always had a nagging feeling that it wasn't rigorous enough. It may have been user error on my end, but I think my child mastered the art of 'filling in the blanks' and not really mastering the material presented.

[Amber in AUS]

I have seen some of the PACE's and i would say the entire program is reading comprehension. There is NOTHING hands on or interesting about it at all.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I used ACE myself as a child and don't recommend it.

 

Same here.

[Daisy]

I went through an ACE school through 9th grade. For the rest of high school, we used a mix of BJU and Abeka. Yes, we had the little flags. LOL.

 

I didn't have a problem with my ACE school but I was bored out of my mind. It took me 90 minutes to my work every day and the rest of the day I read in the library, played recess with all the other grade levels, or assisted in the K-1 classrooms.

 

Our school did add other things. I remember having to memorize a complete chapter of the Bible every month and recite it in front of the class. We had additional Bible study courses. I really enjoyed the ACE art paces when I was in 5th grade.

 

Anyway, I graduated from private university with honors. Whether that was due to ACE or just my voracious reading, I'll never know, but apparently ACE didn't hurt me any.

[Ellie]

ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) was written for use in Christian schools by teachers who were not professional, usually parents. In schools, children sit lined up facing their "offices," which are individual spaces with dividers on either side. Children work through their Paces all on their own; when they need help, they put a little flag up on the top of the divider and the "teacher" comes over and helps. Many small Christian schools use ACE because it's inexpensive and they don't have to hire professional teachers.

 

There are 12 Paces for each subject for each year. Children can work through them as quickly--or as slowly--as they are able; in schools, children often work through more than one grade level in a year, but the great thing is that they can move ahead in one subject while being behind in another. That's definitely an advantage over the materials published by companies like ABeka or BJUP.

 

On the down side, imagine children sitting and filling out little identical workbook pages for all subjects, day after day, with little interaction with their teachers. Some people hand the Paces off to their dc and say, "Here, go do this." Personally, I prefer more face time with my dc, although I can see extenuating circumstances where that might be what has to be done (such as a mother being not well, or working outside the home and needing to have her dc work independently).

 

A friend took her very bright ds out of school in first grade. She enrolled him in a distance-learning program that required her to use ACE. She knew she needed to do something different when the 2nd quarter's Paces arrived at her front door and her ds broke into tears.

 

I think using ACE for a couple of subjects would be fine; I just think that using it for everything might not be so great.

[sweetbaby]

I have seen some of the PACE's and i would say the entire program is reading comprehension. There is NOTHING hands on or interesting about it at all.

 

:iagree:My dc attended an ACE school in the past. I didn't like the lack of hands on activities and other approaches to learning. It was basically "read and fill in the blank".

[sarahv]

I did ACE from K-12 at Christian Schools. I also studied Suzuki Violin. I find their philosophies very similar, and potentially equally as effective. I say potentially, because a curriculum can never truly stand on it's own. It must be taught. Many people have misused the PACE's, thinking that they teach on their own. And many, many teachers have misused Suzuki curriculum as well. If you're going to use ACE, you really need to understand the philosophy behind the curriculum.

 

If you don't like traditional, conservative type of Christian lifestyle, you will not like ACE. If you don't like workbook types of curriculums, you will not like ACE. If you don't like a gentle approach to the younger grades, you will not like their curriculum. I'm actually surprised at how people get kind of heated over ACE. It's just another curriculum vendor that you can use if you like, or discard if you like.

 

It has been my observation that many conservative, rule-oriented groups (churches, etc.) use ACE. I suspect that people get heated over the context in which the curriculum was taught and mistake their disatisfaction with the actual curriculum.

 

Is ACE college prep as a full, stand alone curriculum? Absolutely. Does it have weak areas? Absolutely, as every curriculum does. Personally, I believe that any boxed curriculum is going to come with weak areas.

 

I graduated from an ACE school and went on to study ancient languages and music in college. I got very good grades, and graduated. My husband will be starting his PhD this next year (has a BA, plus 2 master's degrees) and grew up from K-12 in ACE schools as well. David Gibbs III (Christian Law Association) graduated from ACE schools and I think got his law degree from Harvard. He speaks very highly of ACE curriculum.

 

My oldest son is in K this year. I began the year with Abeka, because I taught Abeka K a few years ago, knew the program fairly well, liked the visuals, and wanted him to begin his handwriting with cursive. I was supplementing with ACE, because I really like their approach to LA.

 

I've abandoned Abeka. We are now solidly ACE LA. I will not use the program as a "box" because of a few deficiencies I see, but when it comes to LA, ACE is head and shoulders above other programs. Others will not necessarily agree with my philosophical approach to LA, but I see aspects that ACE uses when it comes to the subjects of Phonics, Spelling and Grammar that are superior to other programs, and I have bought and sold several over the past few years, as well as viewing others in depth (OPG, ABB, PP, R&S, FLL 1+2, to name a few).

 

Math leaves much to be desired in ACE (but this is just my opinion, I have met plenty of people who love the approach). I am using RS. Social Studies is a waste for a classical teacher, IMHO. I am much more bent toward chronological studies, 4-6 year rotation anyway. Science is good, but needs a little supplementation in the area of scientific observation, hands on activities, etc. Writing is not so great, so I will be using WWE in the early years and probably going on to CW when the time is appropriate. But Phonics, Spelling and Grammar will be ACE all the way through probably 8th grade or so. It is gentle, deliberate, and systematic. Mastery at it's best.

 

I have my eye on supplementation: I am a huge fan of Webster's Speller, and I am looking at Science Excursion for extra Science hands on studies. Other programs that I will likely be using to round out our Classical schooling will include companies like VP, MP, and BF, as well as the above mentioned WWE, and CW. (I included these boring details to give anyone interested an idea of how I will be utilizing ACE in our classical program.)

 

Very frankly, classical education is not a package deal. Everyone on this board knows this--and that's why we all like this board. We are a group of teachers, finding the resources we like to fit our style of teaching, and the style of students we have. :001_smile:

 

Saxon is not classical. Abeka is not classical. R&S is not classical. PP is not classical. The companies that are more literature approaches might be a *little* more classical than some other companies, but even they are not classical, they are literature-based. What makes a program classical? In my estimation, it is the philosophical approach to language and history that tends to define a program as classical. So with that in mind, we all have our version of "classical". Some espouse to a more WTM approach to classical, while others tend to follow a more LCC approach (I fall in this category myself).

 

I suspect that some think that "classical education" is defined by rigor. I know this cannot be, because educational rigor cannot be defined. The idea of a rigorous education can take so many different forms, it is ridiculous. On the east coast, a rigorous education is defined by sending home more homework. Others in the educational field think that rigor is attained by introducting, and requiring students to think more complex, abstract thoughts at younger ages. This also is ridiculous. OK, enough on that rabbit trail...

 

ACE is a great resource. Some people use it as a total box curriculum. Others use Abeka as a box. Still other use MFW or WP or Sonight as a box. But most on this board don't do boxes. We are not box people for the most part. :tongue_smilie: We are resource people, using what we like, and discarding what we don't.

 

I know alot about ACE, so if anyone has questions, I can probably give you a good idea about how the self-pacs, scoring, goal setting, etc. works.

 

Sorry for the long post. I did ramble a bit...:lol:

[Annabel Lee]

Sarah, it's good to hear that ACE can work successfully given the right approach. I, however, was for 3 yrs. another student lined up facing the wall w/ dividers at either side, left alone to memorize & regurgitate facts. Our material wasn't taught, we just read it. It was easy for me to know which key phrases in reading passages would be in questions, and then on tests. There was a 'grading station' set up w/ all the answer keys, and students graded their own work, went back to their seats & corrected it, then back to the grading station... We didn't have art paces or any other electives, aside from memorizing chapters of the Bible.

 

Any curriculum, even the very best, can fall short. Good teachers are key.

[sarahv]

Tricia,

 

I noticed that you have 12 children. I grew up in a large family (I have 11 siblings as well). Although my exposure to ACE was in a school setting, I have no doubt that if I had 12 children, I would CERTAINLY be using ACE as an entire curriculum. It is a very thorough curriculum, and although not entirely classical, it uses enough classical ideas that it would be very easy to tweak, if that's what you wanted.

 

One of the reasons why I love ACE is because it is so thorough. I have never met an ACE graduate (who went through several levels of ACE, and used the curriculum properly) who didn't have a very substantive grounding in all of the subjects. The one weak area in the past has been writing, but that has been well improved over the past 10 years, with the publishing of the 3rd and 4th editions.

 

Having worked with the 3rd editions (I personally used 2nd edition as a kid), and having seen the 4th editions recently, I am just more impressed with the quality of the material. It's colorful, interesting, and even more thorough than when I was a child. There are even some really great enrichment subjects for the younger years for brighter students who are working through the basics too quickly (Animal Science, Creative Writing, etc). I know some posters have mentioned the "dry" material of ACE PACE's, but frankly, as kids, both my husband and myself remember how we both looked forward to receiving a new PACE because of the stories and cartoons in them. In fact, my husband particularly loved the Science PACE's, and as a "science buff" wants me to use ACE for Science because is sparked his interest so much as a child. It's me who wants to supplement with more hands on material. :)

 

My husband related an interesting story to me last night. He said when he was in High School, he had a College President comment to him that of the students that came to his college, it was the ACE students that scored the highest in Independent Study and Research. Very frankly, ACE helps kids to be more independent learners, and isn't that what every adult must be? If a kid was always dependent on a teacher, than as an adult, he would be unable to learn a subject on his own. But we ALL must learn on our own. We all know learning doesn't stop after High School, or college, or graduate studies even. We all desire to further our minds, and especially those of us on this forum. I have read lots of threads about homeschooling parents on this forum who have to learn latin ahead of their kids in order to help them learn the subject. In fact, I'll be doing that myself starting next year.

 

In my previous post, I gave my overview of how I will be utilizing the curriculum in a classical manner. But let me reiterate that if I had more children, or had to work and homeschool, I would be using ACE in it's entirety and supplementing less. I'm only supplementing the way that I am now because I can. :) I must also add that I am supplementing based on some ideological differences with ACE, not because of lack of quality in the material.

 

There are several things I look for in a curriculum: 1. That it is trustworthy. It is not a small task to undertake the teaching of EVERY grade for your child. I am not trained specifically in EVERY subject of every grade. Because I don't have this specialty, I must trust a curriculum to catch details that I will not, so that my children will not have gaps in their learning. So I look for material that one, has been around for awhile, i.e., has been tested and updated and improved over the years. I really don't want a brand new curriculum, because that means that my kids and myself will be the testers.

 

2. I look for curriculum that has been written by authors who are experts in their field of study. It really turns me off when a curriculum has been written by a homeschool parent with no degree in the subject their writing about. It especially turns me off when the author does not list his credentials in that field of study, or any field of study for that matter. Being a homeschool parent is NOT a credential for writing curriculum. ACE is trustworthy. It's been around for a long time, it's been updated and improved several times, and the thoroughness of the material is built in. I don't have to worry about making sure my kids get extra practice in anything, because all the review is right there. I can actually skip some review if I feel my child has gotten the concept well enough.

 

3. I judge curriculum on it's presentation and organization. Is it clearly organized enough for me to follow without a ton of tweaking and preparation? This is vital for me, as I lead a very active lifestyle, and must organize my time between caring for all aspects of the home and my personal study of classical subjects so that I can be well prepared to teach those outside of the main subjects my children will be studying.

 

4. Last, but not least, I judge material based on it's usability with my overall philosophy of education, which in my case has a serious classical bent to it. My educational plans for my kids include a stiff English writing and speech program (rhetoric) and a thorough study of classical subjects inluding Latin, Greek, and classical western history (the study of Greece and Rome, to be specific). I also have a bent toward chronological, literature-based history studies as well.

 

I am the product of an entire educational "boxed" curriculum. And very frankly, I have a very solid education. Utilizing ACE in parts or as a whole would be beneficial for any child.

 

IMHO. :lol:

 

Sarah

Edited November 11, 2009 by sarahv

[sarahv]

I wanted to add that ACE is very easy to use. It is very clearly laid out, with manageable goals for both student and teacher. Even my son, at his early age, is already exhibiting the satisfaction and excitement I felt as a child when I finished a PACE, received a star on my chart, and got a new PACE.

 

The PACE's are about 30 pages in length, and include three quizes and a practice test. At three pages per day, a student will finish a PACE in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. There is daily accoutability in the scoring and immediate correction of mistakes. It is a very efficient way of learning.

 

I think that CLE is similar in style, but I'm not sure how long the Light Units are, nor how they are set up for quizing and testing. When I read parent's satisfactory comments on this board about why they like CLE, they are very similar reasons to why others say they like ACE. It makes me think that they are very similar formats. You may want to check out CLE for many of the reasons that you are looking into ACE.

 

ACE is about $32 per subject per year (twice that if you are ordering the score keys, too). The PACE's are consumable. I have a friend who took her children out of private school and decided on ACE as the curriculum. She told me she could not be more happy about how well her kids were doing, compared to how they were in private school. Better grades, better mastery of concepts. Her 8th grader told her just a few months into the program that he finally felt like he was understanding concepts.

 

For a student beginning the program, it's very important to have them take the free online diagnostic test. It will assess any concepts they may have missed, and will give specific PACE numbers the parent needs to order. It places the student exactly where they need to be in the curriculum.

 

The student learns to set his own goals, and is responsible (in the mid-elementary years, and under good supervision) for scoring and correcting mistakes. I know one homeschool mom who does not like her kids to self-score, so she does all the scoring, but I always felt like I was able to learn more effeciently when I saw the correct answer and could study why they got that particular answer, and why mine was wrong.

 

The parent's responsibility is to teach any new concept that is presented in the daily material, and check for scoring mistakes or other inaccuracies in the student's work. That way, the parent stays right on top of the learning process. They are able to make proper assessment of the child's progress and give help if needed. Also, they can help the student understand concepts better and help to evaluate the goal setting process. It all works toward giving the student a clear sense of success, and helps them to know how to pace themselves in their individual learning process.

 

For those who are not familiar with the curriculum, I was hoping this practical overview would give a good sense of what ACE is like. :001_smile:

[Zoo Keeper]

Sarah,

 

I appreciate your very thorough info on ACE. It is great to see how well it served you in the past and how you are able to make it work for your family. Hats off to you! Finding what works for you and your children--isn't that the beauty of home education? :001_smile:

 

Thanks again for being willing to share.

[skaterbabs]

We've used both CLE and ACE. By far, CLE is the superior program academically - and is less obnoxious with the unrelated Bible verse that simply interrupts a lesson rather than adding to it. Yacko (grade 7) actually requested to switch from ACE to CLE two years ago after seeing it at convention and I'm still kicking myself for not doing so that very day.