A.C.E. Curriculum Program

At Heritage Christian School, our purpose goes beyond simply helping students learn the academics required to enter college or get a “good” job. We desire to build in students a life-long burning passion to learn and grow spiritually. It is one thing to want children to be successful and quite another to provide the academic and character training to ensure this accomplishment.

A look at A.C.E. (Accelerated Christian Education)

Character Development

Godly character training is part of the A.C.E. learning experience, and it prepares students to welcome and accept challenges and future opportunities. Sixty character traits, such as kindness, loyalty, and honesty, are taught within the curriculum. Students can observe character development in the true-to-life character strips and then apply the Godly character lessons to their own lives.

Scriptural Foundation

Challenging and highly effective, the A.C.E. program is an extraordinary educational approach, Biblical in its core, that prepares students for tomorrow’s world while giving them traditional moral values that will last a lifetime.

The curriculum conveys Biblical values and concepts considered foundational to meaningful interpersonal relationships and productive learning in such a way as to become life-shaping influences.

Accelerated Christian Education—a unique program for this time in history—is building Godly citizens and Christian leaders of tomorrow. A.C.E. is your servant to meet the educational needs of today, with the traditional values of yesterday, and the technology of tomorrow.

Individualized Approach

Whether the student is a high achiever, a moderately paced learner, or a slow learner, the A.C.E. educational process begins at the exact level determined by the child’s ability. This is individualization, making it possible for each student to master the subject matter before moving on. Such mastery is the foundation upon which all future learning is built.

Five Laws of Learning

The educational concept of A.C.E. was built on five basic laws of learning:

• Students must be at subject levels where they can perform.
• Students must set reasonable goals.
• Students must be controlled and motivated.
• Learning must be measurable.
• Learning must be rewarded.

Diagnosis and Prescription

Are your students really mastering Basic Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Spelling skills? Could there be some learning gaps that have not been identified? A.C.E. diagnostic testing begins with simple concepts and continues through more advanced abstract thinking. Successful completion of this diagnostic testing indicates readiness for high school level curriculum.

A doctor must diagnose a patient’s physical needs before prescribing proper treatment. In much the same way, a student’s academic needs must be diagnosed before proper curriculum can be prescribed. Proper academic diagnosis and prescription is vital to a student’s achievement.

Each student entering the A.C.E. program is given diagnostic tests to determine skill and concept mastery. The diagnostic tests assist the evaluator in determining the student’s academic needs in each subject. After the student completes the diagnostic testing, he is given curriculum that meets and challenges him at his performance level.

Diagnostic placement testing ensures that students begin at the exact point of their academic needs. Additionally, diagnostic testing determines if there are any “learning gaps.” Students can simply fill in the “learning gaps” without the stigma of “failing” a grade or falling behind.

Academic tests include math, English, spelling, and reading (Bible, Literature and Creative Writing, science, and social studies). These tests cover basic skills normally mastered before high school.

If weak areas are evident from the testing, the appropriate gap PACEs are prescribed to strengthen specific weaknesses. After completing the gap PACEs, the student progresses at his performance level. If he demonstrates mastery at all levels of testing, he has the ability to function at his chronological grade level in the high school curriculum.

What is a P.A.C.E?

Individualization helps produce academic excellence. Students using the A.C.E. programs continue to demonstrate above-average achievement. One reason is that they take responsibility for their own learning. Additionally, they receive character training in Biblical principles. Moreover, students using the A.C.E. program go on to higher education and into ministry and professional pursuits with confidence and a superb educational background.

Professional Expertise

The A.C.E. individualized curriculum has been carefully compiled to introduce children to concrete and abstract reasoning skills at appropriate age levels. A.C.E.’s experienced writers and editors have meticulously chosen grade level vocabulary and concepts that move in a mastery-based format from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract.

Three Levels of Learning

The Accelerated Christian Education staff wants children to be successful. But, more than this, A.C.E. provides the tools for training children so they can have the opportunity to be productive. The life of each child is too precious to be left to chance. Consequently, A.C.E. has invested millions of dollars developing a curriculum that can equip children so they will know how to think, act, and live.

A.C.E.’s individualized program introduces children to concrete and abstract reasoning skills at appropriate age levels in conjunction with maturation stages. Writers and editors have carefully developed a scope and sequence with vocabulary that moves from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract as students progress from kindergarten through graduation. This Christian curriculum is structured to include all three levels of the learning process: knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Knowledge

Before adolescence, children focus on each new concept from a mastery viewpoint—line upon line, precept upon precept; focus is on the who, what, where, and when of information. Educators refer to this information as the knowledge dimension. However, there is development from this stage of learning to cognitive learning.

Understanding

With adolescence, students concentrate on concepts that expand to the abstract or cognitive level; the focus is on why and how. This is referred to as the understanding dimension of life. Students learn not only facts (knowledge) but also how those facts relate to culture, science, and history (understanding).

Wisdom

Another, and perhaps the chief distinctive of the A.C.E. curriculum, is its focus on wisdom. Most curriculum publishers focus on knowledge (facts and information), and some publishers include understanding (relationship of information). Accelerated Christian Education curriculum is distinct in its inclusion of wisdom as a deliberate aspect of the learning process.

The A.C.E. curriculum is set apart from all other curricula on the market. The special combination of academics and methodology, based on physiological development patterns and Biblical principles, provides mastery learning, critical analysis, conceptualization, cognitive reasoning, and life from God’s perspective. These differences make A.C.E. the most advanced educational package available anywhere in the world.

With A.C.E.’s concept of individualized learning, students don’t just get by—they get ahead! To God be the glory!