ACADEMICS
ACADEMICS
Utilizing the ACE program students will develop skills in goal setting, reading, and character building with a strong biblical integration. This whole student development begins with reading courses and progresses through high school with core curriculum and a variety of electives.
The individualized learning plans and self-instructional PACEs (Packets of Accelerated Christian Education) allows students to learn at an appropriate rate. Students thus have the liberty to accelerate their academic achievements.
Core Curriculum is to distinguish the seven foundational academic courses of the A.C.E. program from other required and enhancement courses. The core curriculum provides the student with academics, skill building, reading practice, and knowledge of God, His Word, and His character and wisdom.
The core curriculum includes seven basic academic disciplines that fulfill essential educational needs: Math, English, Word Building, Literature and Creative Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Bible Reading.
Each core curriculum level consists of 12 PACEs. Most students complete a minimum of 70 PACEs in one academic year. The classroom supervisor will ensure students maintain academic balance by completing approximately the same number of PACEs in each core subject.
CURRICULUM
Since the A.C.E. program focuses on individualized learning plans it refers to the students’ academic position in terms of ‘Levels’ instead of grades. An approximate comparison to conventional grades could be understood as ‘1st Grade ≈ Level 1; 2nd Grade ≈ Level 2’ etc. Provided below is an overview of core curriculum structure by level.
In levels 1-6, the student is introduced to God and His creation. Science tells about God’s physical creation. Social studies present the world as ruled and ordered by God and History as ‘His Story.’ Math presents faces about God’s orderly world. English shares with the student the importance of communication in Godly living. Word Building, Literature, and Creative Writing reinforce English communication skills and provide practice for improving vocabulary and word usage. All PACEs are carefully designed to give the student harmonious academic training from God’s point of view.
These levels build upon the foundation laid in the first six levels. Wisdom principles are interwoven with the academics to build upon the character qualities learned. Because wisdom is the character of God in action, the student learns how to recognize and apply character qualities and how to put them into action. Wisdom inserts are included in each English PACE of 1097-1144. These inserts are designed to help students see life from God’s perspective.
STANDARDIZED TESTING
The Iowa Assessments™ Form E Complete Battery (Iowa Complete) and the Cognitive Abilities Test™ (CogAT®) Form 7 measure how students are performing on nationwide standards. The Iowa Complete is a large-scale achievement test that assesses students’ skills in reading, language, mathematics, social studies, and science. The test measures both foundation skills and higher-order thinking skills. The CogAT evaluates the development of students’ reasoning abilities using verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal cognitive tasks. When the two are taken together, the scores are a valuable tool, relating a student’s actual achievement with his or her ability and providing a wealth of information to parents and school staff. The CogAT Form 7 is administered in Levels 2, 5, and 8.