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Accelerated Christian Education
Formation	1970
Type	Christian Education
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee
Website	http://www.aceministries.com

Accelerated Christian Education is an American educational products company. It produces the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) school curriculum. The home office is in Nashville, Tennessee with a customer service and distribution center in Lewisville, Texas.^[1] According to a study, by 1980 there were over 3,000 Christian Schools in the United States associated with ACE.^[2] An European representative states that the ACE program is, “being used in thousands of schools and many thousands of home schools in over 100 different countries worldwide”.^[3]

Contents 1 History 2 Statement of Faith 3 Curriculum 3.1 Structure 3.2 Academic content 3.2.1 Kindergarten 3.2.2 Elementary grades 3.2.3 High School subjects 3.2.3.1 English and literature 3.2.3.2 Social studies 3.2.3.3 Science 3.2.3.4 Theological content 3.3 Teacher and Administrator Training 4 Usage 4.1 Homeschooling families 4.2 Private schools 4.3 Student Conventions 4.3.1 Academic Achievement 4.3.2 Artistic Events 4.3.3 Athletics 4.3.4 Christian Oriented 4.3.5 Dramatic 5 Criticism 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Accelerated Christian Education was founded in 1970 by Dr. Donald Howard and his wife Esther.^[4] They set about developing a Bible based curriculum, which was adopted by a number of private Christian schools. He traveled extensively to promote ACE schools, viewing the establishment of ACE schools around the world as a new form of missions--he called it educational missions. Through educational missions, the message of Jesus could be introduced to students in developing countries which were keen for a curriculum which would teach English without requiring expert teachers.^{[citation needed]}

According to information on the Accelerated Christian Education website, Dr. Donald and Esther Howard opened the first school to use the ACE program in Garland, Texas.^[4] They started with 45 students. By 1971, they had added 6 new schools.^[4] Donald Howard turned over the operation of ACE to David Gibbs.^{[citation needed]} The company has also been headed at various times by logistics expert David Derby and supply-chain management specialist Joseph Emerson.^{[citation needed]}

The Accelerated Christian Education statement of faith holds the following beliefs:^[5]

• The plenary, verbal inspiration of the Bible, equally and in all parts and without error;

• The one God, eternally existent Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who created man by a direct, immediate act;

• The preexistence, incarnation, virgin birth, sinless life, miracles, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension to Heaven, and second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ;

• The fall of man, the need for regeneration by the operation of the Holy Spirit through personal faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour on the basis of grace alone, and the resurrection of every person to either eternal life or eternal damnation;

• The spiritual relationship of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, living a life of righteous works, separated from the world, and witnessing of His saving grace through the ministry of the Holy Spirit;

• The Biblical mandate of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission for all Believers to proclaim the Gospel and to disciple all nations.

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According to the curriculum section on their website, the ACE “program is individualized and nongraded”^[6] and “designed to allow students to work at their own level of achievement”.^[6] They state that their “core curriculum is an individualized, Biblically-based, character-building curriculum package”. The program allows students to advance through high school.^[6]

The Accelerated Christian Education curriculum is based on a series of workbooks called PACEs, which stands for Packets of Accelerated Christian Education.^[3] Each subject has 12 PACEs per grade level.^[6] The basic subjects of ACE are Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and Word Building (spelling and word usage).^[6] No teacher's manuals are published for the elementary grades since all the material is contained in the PACEs.^{[citation needed]} Test Keys are published for corresponding PACEs.^[7]

Students are not supposed to communicate with other students, get up, or turn around without obtaining permission from a supervisor. Students who are having difficulty are expected to raise a small American or Christian flag signaling that they need help.^{[citation needed]}

In many of the Christian Right schools interaction between students has been cut off and intellectual activities in groups rarely occur because group work is not valued. Cooperative learning, which invests some power in and attributes some wisdom to the group, is seen to undermine the relationship of subservience of children to adults and to God.^{[citation needed]}

"Nearly all speculative activities about the world and the human condition have been purged from the curriculum, and so, therefore, have all of the teaching methodologies that promote speculation — field trips, inquiry learning, laboratory learning, cooperative learning, and so forth. When questioned on these matters, the vice president of ACE said, "ACE does not necessarily embrace philosophical beliefs compatible with those of most contemporary writers of curriculum".^[8]

^{[verification needed]}

Substitute PACEs are developed for some countries that use the metric system or measurement or are not covered in detail in the regular Social Studies PACEs.^{[citation needed]}

ACE states that, “Before printing, all curriculum is checked by quality control personnel to assure the highest standard of accuracy and academic excellence. For additional verification, much of the curriculum is field tested.”^[9]

When a student enters the ACE system, their academic ability is diagnosed, and any learning gaps are addressed.^[10]

A PACE is equivalent to three weeks of work. Students set goals of how much work they will do in each subject each day, putting the responsibility for their progress on the student. As the student works individually through the PACE, they do a series of reviews, and at the end sit a preparatory test. They then sit a PACE test. The pass score for a PACE test is 80%, however, if a passing score is not achieved then the student must retake the test until they pass (achieve >= 80%).^[10].

The kindergarten curriculum prepare children for reading. Children who are ready to read progress through the "ABC's with Ace and Christi" reading program. The program uses songs and stories to teach the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.^[11]

Once students are able to read at a reasonable level, they are able to work with little assistance from their teacher, or supervisor, as the ACE curriculum calls them. The supervisor is expected to motivate and supervise the student, monitor their progress, and mark their work.^[12]

Elementary school students study the basic subjects, plus Creative Writing, with Art as an elective.^[13]. High school students continue studying the core subjects plus electives including Spanish, French, Government, Health, Bible Study, Music, Art, Typing, and Accounting.^[14]

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Pilgrim's Progress and biographies of notable Christians.^{[citation needed]}

In one story that is part of the Social Studies ACE packet, a mother says to her son:

Your father is the head of our home. It is God's plan for the father to be head of his family. I talk to your father about things, but he is the one who decides what we must do. I would do wrong not to obey your father because he is the head of our home. God is pleased when a mother obeys the father in the home.^[15]

^{[verification needed]}

One science ACE packet (1986) defines science as "the search for the principles of God's creation based upon reproducible experiments.... We should always subject a principle to the test of the Bible"^[16]

ACE Packets for Year 8 Earth Science include a unit that provides proof of creationism and another unit that provides proof of the flood. Year 9 Physical Science includes a unit on the limitations of science and another on the Bible and scientific method. Year 10 Biology has units on the facts of creation, and critiques of evolution, ecology, and conservation ^[17]

the ACE science packet (1986) used in private Christian schools says that Darwin is an important figure in science but that his theory of evolution is wrong:

The Bible is completely against any such theory. Evolution claims that man arose through a series of random changes. The theory leaves no room for man's responsibility or man's sin. If evolution were true, no man would be born a sinner because Adam would never have fallen and committed the original sin of disobedience to God. If evolution were true, Christ would not have needed to die for our sin.^[18]

In discussing the sediment from core samples of earth obtained when drilling for oil off the coast of Guatemala, the ACE science packet notes: Much of that sediment was deposited during the Flood, but even without the deposition of sediment by the Flood, the yearly deposition rates tell us that the Earth is quite young.^[19]

All subjects are biblically based and memorization of Bible verses is encouraged. These verses come from the Authorized Version (King James Version) of the Christian Bible. ACE is not linked with any one particular Christian Denomination yet their beliefs correspond with those of many Conservative Protestant groups as well as independent Baptists and Pentecostals

ACE provides annual one day training sessions for administrators. These are provided in different locations around the country. The sessions focus on understanding and properly implementing the ACE program.^[20] For Learning Center Supervisors a four day workshop is provided yearly.^[21] The workshop is organized like an ACE classroom, allowing the supervisor to experience the ACE system as a student and learn how to implement the system.

Only a few administrators and principals have gone to college and received a masters or doctorate in Education. Monitors can have some college work under their belts but not usually. The role of a Christian Service monitor is to answer flags, sign checkups (quizzes), and help the student through daily work. Supervisors help in the academic area; when students are having trouble in a subject they are there. They also handle major discipline problems (the head supervisor is the principal in most places)

Many homeschooling families add their own lessons in the arts, science, sports, etc., as well as excursions and extracurricular activities. Many children that use ACE find time for internships, apprenticeships and vocational exploration, since it is reasonable to complete the curriculum in much less time than the average child uses in the public school setting.

Before a school is started the administrator and supervisor will attend workshops from ACE instructing them how to use the curriculum. Schools are not required to use the entire ACE curriculum and may augment it with additional curriculum from other sources such as BJU, A-Beka, or even secular material.^[22]

Schools that use the ACE curriculum may participate in the student conventions. The conventions augment the curriculum by requiring students to prepare to compete in dramatic, artistic, and athletic events^[23][24]. The conventions also offer "Events of the Heart" which allows for students with mental and physical disabilities to participate in the activities and awards ceremony.

ACE holds an annual International Student Convention for High School students designed to develop leadership skills with students. Since 1976, Regional conventions have been held throughout the world and the top placed participants are able to proceed to the International Convention. The International Convention is uaually held at a university campus, such as: Indiana University in Bloomington (1990), North Texas University in Denton, TX(1991), Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff (1993), Purdue University in Indiana(1994).

The student convention also offers speakers geared at high school students. In the past speakers such as David Gibbs from the Christian Law Association, Ben Jordan, William Murray (Madeline Murray Ohare's son). When the convention first started a parade in the hosting city would accompany it. In 1981 over 3,000 students and sponsors marched in New York City to celebrate the opening of the convention at Rutgers University.^[25]

A sampling of events include:

• 100 PACEs completed
• Spelling
• Chess
• Science Exhibits
• PACE Bowl

• Music Composition
• Short Story Writing
• Photography, PowerPoint
• Metalworking
• Sketching

• Track and Field
• Basketball
• Volleyball
• Archery

• Preaching
• Golden Scripture Memorization

• One Act Play
• Radio Dramas
• Interpretation for the Deaf

Many aspects of the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum have come under criticism from educational researchers.

• D. Flemming and T Hunt of the educational journal Phi Delta Kappa wrote in a 1987 article regarding the emphasis on rote learning.

"If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world - one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall - then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking"^[26]

• Former President of the Division of Educational Psychology for the American Psychology Association and former President of the American Educational Research Association, David Berliner cites a study by Speck and Prideaux (1993) which notes the wide use of association and recall activities in the ACE curriculum, as well as other workbook based curriculum. "^[27]

Speck and Prideau (1993) state,"The work consists of low-level cognitive tasks that emphasize simple association and recall activities, as is typical of instruction from workbooks. Despite the reviling of B. F. Skinner by the Christian Right, the materials make heavy use of behavioral objectives, programmed learning, and rewards.^[28] "

• Having researched comparative performance on the ACT between public school students and ACE students in the same geographic area, one researcher in 2005 reports,

"a significant difference was found between the public school graduates' scores and the ACE graduates' scores in all areas of the ACT (English, Math, Reading, and Composite Score), except the area of Science Reasoning. Overall, the ACT scores of the ACE graduates were consistently lower than those of the public school students."^[29]

• In the past, ACE has included controversial material in its curriculum. For example, a section from a high school packet regarding Apartheid in South Africa states as follows:

"Although apartheid appears to allow the unfair treatment of blacks, the system has worked well in South Africa . . . . Although white businessmen and developers are guilty of some unfair treatment of blacks, they turned South Africa into a modern industrialized nation, which the poor, uneducated blacks couldn't have accomplished in several more decades. If more blacks were suddenly given control of the nation, its economy and business, as Mandela wished, they could have destroyed what they have waited and worked so hard for."^[30]

• Homeschooling
• Mountains Christian Academy
• Totara College of Accelerated Learning

• Accelerated Christian Education Official Website
• American Home School and Tutoring Centers A.C.E. Correspondence and Tutoring
• Christian Education Europe A.C.E. UK distributor
• Divine and Rule - Guardian article (2005-08-27) about A.C.E. in the UK.
• Christian Education Europe A.C.E. Europe Represenative
• Centre for Christian Education at Liverpool Hope University
• Educational Psychology Meets the Christian Right: Differing Views of Children, Schooling, Teaching, and Learning by David C. Berliner