Accelerated Christian Education is an American company which produces the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE, styled by the company as A.C.E.) school curriculum structured around a literal interpretation of the Bible and which teaches other academic subjects from a Protestant fundamentalist or conservative evangelical standpoint. Founded in 1970 by Donald Howard and Esther Hilte Howard, ACE's website states it is used in over 6,000 schools in 145 countries.
ACE has been criticized for its content, heavy reliance on the use of rote recall as a learning tool and for the educational outcomes of pupils on leaving the Accelerated Christian Education system both in the US and the United Kingdom. The ACE curriculum does not meet national and state standards such as the National Science Education Standards (NSES), because it does not support skills for critical thought and basic scientific literacy. The ACE curriculum explicitly denies evolution, that human agency is affecting climate, and that climate change is occurring.
History
Accelerated Christian Education was founded in 1970 by fundamentalist Baptist minister Donald Howard, a graduate of Bob Jones University. and his wife Esther Hilte Howard. They set about developing a biblically literalist educational curriculum. The first school which used the ACE program opened in Garland, Texas in 1973 and started with 45 students. By 1980 there were over 3,000 Christian schools in the United States associated with ACE. ACE reported that 8,000 schools were using by the 1980s. Subsequent numbers decreased: in a 1999 brochure ACE reported 7,000 schools, and by 2013, 6,000.
Donald Howard travelled actively to promote ACE schools in the United States and around the world as a new form of "educational mission". Expansion into Australia began in 1976 and peaked in the 1980s. ACE schools have also been established in the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Europe, and elsewhere. ACE has also focused on the homeschooling market.
In 1992 ACE opened a three-story facility in Lewisville, Texas, to handle its growing operations. Esther Howard took over control of ACE the following year. J. Duane Howard, one of the couple's sons, currently serves as CEO. In 2007, ACE moved its corporate offices to Madison, Tennessee, eventually moving to Hendersonville, Tennessee in 2014. The Lewisville facility remains as ACE's distribution center.
Curriculum approach
According to the curriculum section on its website, ACE's "core curriculum is an individualized, Biblically-based, character-building curriculum package" and is based on a series of workbooks called PACEs (Packets of Accelerated Christian Education). ACE's educational approach uses phonics to teach reading. Children learn using materials based on their level of understanding, not based on their age or chronological grade level and do not progress until they learn the content. At the beginning of each PACE is an overview, a scripture to memorize, a character trait to strive toward, and information on what, if any, supplies the student will need. Each subject has twelve PACEs per grade level. The basic subjects of ACE are mathematics (yellow), English (red), Literature (and Creative Writing) (burgundy), Word Building/Etymology (purple), science (blue), social studies (green), and Old and New Testament (light yellow). Students in the Philippines (under School of Tomorrow Philippines) also study Araling Panlipunan (brown) and Filipino (pink). A new student is given a diagnostic test, and the test results place the student at appropriate levels by subject. Students are required to set daily goals for work completion, score PACE goals correctly and completely, and are generally expected to complete a PACE within two to three weeks (depending on the school). Students are given review activities at certain points in a PACE (called "Checkups") and a test at its culmination (Self Test). Supervisors do not answer PACE questions nor do they give the answer, but guide students and encourage them to find the answer on their own. Should material in some PACE subjects be challenging, supervisors may need to adjust the students' goals accordingly. The passing score for the PACE Test can be from 80% to 90%, also depending on the corresponding school. Students who fail (including those who have committed minor or major scoring violations) (for example, a 100% on all three Checkups and the Self Test, and a 42% on the PACE Test) are mandated to take what measures the school provides to pass the failed PACE subject (such as repeating both the Self Test and PACE Test, just the PACE Test, or the entire PACE).