Resource Description
Accelerated Christian Education® has taken the conventionally styled textbook and divided it into bite-sized, achievable, worktexts called PACEs. Each PACE is similar to a unit in a textbook. Each level consists of 12 PACEs in each subject. PACEs integrate Godly character-building lessons into the academic content, and self-instructional activities are carefully designed to develop thinking skills and create mastery learning.
Students begin their PACE work by noting their goals, the concepts they will learn, a Bible verse, and a corresponding character trait. From the beginning of each PACE, they know what is expected and assume the responsibility for their own learning! Full-color explanations and illustrations add excitement to each lesson, and innovative learning activities reinforce the interesting text material.
Each PACE contains several Checkups, which are quizzes covering a section of the PACE. If mastery in an area is not achieved, the Checkup will reveal that weak area. Students can then take the time necessary to review and learn those concepts before proceeding to the next.
Upon completion of the activities and Checkups, students prepare to take the Self Test. Here students evaluate themselves, and a supervisor/tutor determines readiness for the final PACE Test. When the Self Test is successfully completed, the student turns in the PACE and takes the PACE Test the next school morning. The PACE Test objectively measures student mastery of the material.
Website: A.C.E. (may contain affiliate links)
(69 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Self Directed, unchallenging
Grades Used: 1-3rd
My daughter has been doing Paces for 3 years now. We first started out great, loved it. However things are starting to change for her she is needing more interaction and guidance than I can give. I work full time and I need to get something that fits better for us.
Also she is getting bored and not challenged at all. Looking at various curriculum for 4th grade, have not yet decided.
Grades Used: 9
I am thrilled with the PACE workbooks. I think the open book quizzes are a great way to get ready for the final.
Cons: Textbook-y
Grades Used: 3,4,6
We have used several curricula: Heart for Dakota, My Father's World, Christian Light Education, charlotte Mason, unit studies, delight led, and unschooling. I have positive thoughts on all of them, but this past year I put my always homeschooled children in public school, and they hated it. So I pulled them out and they were absolutely so thankful for ACE. They are usually finished with their school in 2 hours. We use a different curriculum for math, and a couple have chosen to use CLE for Bible, but the majority of our school is ACE. It has been nothing but a blessing to us this year. They can bring it along when I go to Women's Bible study; they can carry their little 3ring binder of school work anywhere. I set their goals and check their work each week to have them redo pages with me. We absolutely love this curriculum. They finish in the morning and have the afternoon to pursue their delight directed unschooling pursuits!
Cons: Writing and literature program not sufficient for us. We replaced with much more diverse writings and ways of writing. We read their missionary books for in junior high, then switched to Classic literature in high school.
Grades Used: 8-12th
Although we did not strictly use this program, we did use it for approximately half of our sons' high school education. We liked it for math, as this was not a strong subject for them.
We used grammar/writing Paces up to letter writing, and then moved to other ways of writing that were very diverse and interesting.
Science was fairly good, especially Biology.
History was good, except for American History--we used something else that was completely non-racist with discussion and writing about history highly encouraged.
Bible Paces were not used at all, we used the actual Bible, not a Pace for it. Glad we did this.
Cons: Not on par with government curriculum
Grades Used: 1-12
I've been an ACE student from Grade 0 - 12. This was taught in a school setting with multiple students with teachers, not at home. The foundation created by primary school levels are excellent due to the way languages and mathematics are taught. During high school, the work became increasingly difficult for students who didn't come from the ACE primary levels (who came from other curriculums). Having done my government matriculation exams, I did find that they focused on very different exam questions. I did have to do extra learning to achieve desired results for a good government matriculation examination.
However, I will also send my children to the foundation/primary grades through the ACE curriculum.
Cons: They cannot keep up with rewriting all the curriculum
Grades Used: k-12
I have used ACE with 7 children.
I loved that from the start they were learning about the Bible as they were learning other subjects.
The lower grades have worked well with all of them. It provides a very strong foundation, you cannot compare it to what is being taught in public school as most schools do not lay the same foundation of the basic facts. You will find your students will catch up and pass most school students.
For the upper grades I needed to make some changes depending on how my child learned. Sometimes I would adjust the topic of a writing assignment or such. Our adopted children find this level of ACE too academic.
Four of our children are adults now. They are thankful for the learning to read, phonetics and the learning of their math facts, and learning their grammar. Two are using ACE with their children, one up into high school, the other just starting out in Grade one to get that good foundation.
People complain about the grammar but ACE was made to raise Christian leaders who know how to write and speak clearly so that they can be leaders in their various fields.
Not perfect but the best I have found for us.
Cons: need good supervision
Grades Used: K-12
I've been working with PACE's for 13 years now, and I love them!
They are easy, complete, and character building. I plan to continue using them with my younger kids now that my oldest is succeeding in college.
We have been hs since 2002, and we have tried several programs before I came across A.C.E. Personally, I like it alot because it encourages independent work habits. That is a plus for me because I teach several grade levels at once. I only use their math, english, and spelling program. (I use Abeka for literature, science, health, and Social Studies.) I especially lIke the spelling program. I also like the pace idea b/cuz it helps the child stay focused on their goal. We use a combination of programs for high school with ACE as the primary. We have 3 that have graduated and gone on to college and they have scored high on the.Compass, SAT and ACT. As with any program, no matter which one you choose, you need to tweak it toward your child's needs.
Grades Used: Learning to read and first grade
I have done the 12 week learning to read program with ACE and also first grade. I was nervous at first because of some of the very negative reviews I had read, but when it came time to weigh out my top three choices for curriculum ACE was the best fit for my family. I have to say I'm impressed with how thorough this curriculum is, it build on itself beautifully. My son has been learning how to read at an amazing speed. I had spent countless hours looking at samples of other math curriculums but honestly ACE breaks the math down and. Makes it simple enough for my son to master addition facts of numbers 1-5 in two weeks of school, I mean he has them down solid. I read a post here that says that ACE third grade math only teaches multiplication through number 4, that's not true. All one has to do is go online and type in ACE third grade math samples and you can see for yourself that it teaches to multiply through ten, along with a lot of other math concepts. I'm not a lazy mom, I actually sit with my son and have him go through the pace with me there if he needs help, I also add extra curricular activities and library books. I love in CA and I've taken time to see what the state standards would be for him since he would be placed in kindergarten if he was to go to public school because of his age, what is is teaching is AT LEAST a grade to two grades ahead.
Cons: rote, anti-intellectual, cheesy, boring, out of touch, borderline white nationalism, political propaganda
Grades Used: 2-3
I am a teacher of an ACE school, and this curriculum is incredibly rote, and aims at lower level learning. If you care about creativity, critical thinking, and peer-to-peer learning, this is not the curriculum for you. In fact, I would go as far as saying ACE is anti-intellectual. Imagine kids sequestered in their little cubicles, without being able to discuss or ask deeper questions about their learning. If you understand anything about Bloom's Taxonomy, this curriculum aims at the bottom of the triangle.
However, if you don't want to put effort into making learning fun and dynamic for your child, this is the curriculum for you. If you think education is about dispensing workbooks, and require little input from the teacher, then again, this is for you.