A.C.E.

School of Tomorrow Curriculum

Our First Choice of Curriculums, with Highest Recommendations, It Works!

Since 1970, the A.C.E./School of Tomorrow Curriculum has been a proven and highly successful program which majors on these distinctives:

• Places child at exact academic ability by diagnostic testing
• A solid back-to-basics education program.
• A course of study individualized to meet a child’s specific needs and learning capabilities.
• Incorporates goal setting, character-building, and wisdom principles.
• Teaches critical thinking skills.
• Encourages parental involvement.
• Produces academic excellence.

The A.C.E./School of Tomorrow curriculum is built upon these five basic laws of learning:

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

We have found this program to have a great impact on the lives of young people, instilling the philosophy of Christian character in their thinking. The curriculum is non-denominational and provides a theistic course of study that not only teaches that the Bible is the accurate Word of God, but also teaches every subject from the Biblical point of view.

A student can move ahead faster or go slower at the best rate for him. He is not locked into a schedule that goes on regardless of whether he has learned the material. Neither is he required to wait for others when he is ready to advance. This is the essence of the mastery system. Individualization makes it possible for each student to master the subject before moving on. Such mastery is the foundation upon which all future learning is built. Individualization produces academic excellence. Students take responsibility for their own learning. Biblical character training received as part of this learning experience prepares students to welcome and accept challenges and future opportunities that come their way.

Biblical values and concepts considered foundational to relationships and productive living are conveyed throughout the curriculum in such a way as to become life-shaping influences. Character traits like kindness, loyalty, and honesty, are taught within the curriculum, whether it is Math, English, History, or whatever course the student takes. Students observe character development in cartoon strips and then apply the character lesson to their own lives.

Using the ACE materials, a student is able to work on his self-instructional PACEs (Packets of Accelerated Christian Education) even when the parent/supervisor is giving attention to another child. The student can work independently and learn how to take responsibility for learning. Although parents are not required to lecture or make lesson plans, they do need to be present during study times to supervise, motivate, and occasionally explain instructions or lead students in a thought process to arrive at an answer. The ACE curriculum is ideal because it allows students to study individually with minimum assistance.

ACE has taken the conventional textbook and divided it into bite-sized, achievable, worktexts called PACEs. Each PACE is equivalent to a chapter in a textbook. Each grade level consists of 12 PACEs in each subject. PACEs integrate character-building lessons into the academic content. Carefully designed to develop thinking skills and create mastery learning, PACEs have many unique features. Students begin their PACE work by reciting their goals – the concepts they will learn, a Bible verse, and a corresponding character trait. From the very beginning they know what is expected and they assume the responsibility for their own learning! Full color explanations and illustrations add excitement to each lesson. Innovative learning activities reinforce the interesting text material. The Checkup is a mini test covering a section of the PACE. If mastery in an area is not achieved, the Checkup will reveal weak areas. In unusually challenging concepts, student and instructor can take the time necessary to review and learn those concepts. Upon completion of the activities and Checkups, students prepare to take the Self Test – a practice test. With this Step students evaluate themselves to determine readiness for the final Test. When the Self Test is successfully completed, the student turns in the PACE and takes the final Test the next morning. The final Test objectively measures student mastery of the material. Curriculum is available for first grade through high school in PACE form. ACE has designed their curriculum on twelve levels of work, with 1001 thru 1012 being level one, 1013-1024 being level two, and so forth, all the way to 1144. The student should complete, on the average, twelve PACEs a year in any given subject. Twelve in Math, twelve in English, etc. This is the average. Some will do more and others less. The learning limited are never left behind, and the academically gifted are never held back. Students in grades 1st through 8th work in five main subjects (Math, English, Social Studies, Science, and Word Building). Students in 2nd through 5th grade do Creative Writing as a sixth subject. In High School, students do six subjects and concentrate on required courses for earning credits. Every twelve PACEs completed in High School counts as one credit and every six completed as one-half credit. In a normal school year, a student should complete a total of 60 to 72 PACEs of work. Careful attention should be given by the parent (supervisor) that each student keeps a balance in the subjects in which he is working and that he is completing about the same number of PACEs in each subject.

Diagnosis refers to the testing by which a student’s achievement levels are determined. Proper academic diagnosis is vital to academic success and cannot be stressed too much. Past experience has proven that a child’s promotion from one grade to another does not necessarily indicate that all materials have been mastered at that level. In view of this, students should not be assigned academic work on the basis of grade level or on the basis of age. Instead, students should take our diagnostic tests in the areas of English, Math, and Word Building to determine skill and concept mastery. Directions for giving the tests and determining where they should begin are included in the tests. There are score keys available, so you can score these tests yourself. Once scored, students are prescribed curriculum based on their diagnosed level of academic achievement. The English diagnostic test covers levels one to eight. There are two separate tests for Math; the levels one to six test, and the intermediate math tests for levels six to eight. The Word Building diagnostic test is contained in the back of the score key for the English diagnostic test. There are tests for Social Studies and Science to determine their reading comprehension level, but you can determine this by looking at a recent achievement test, without necessarily having to this test. If weak areas are evident from the testing, the appropriate PACEs are prescribed to strengthen specific weaknesses. After completing the gap PACEs, the student begins continuous progress at his achievement level. Generally, a student is placed in the curriculum at the beginning of his performance level, according to the diagnostic tests. If the student demonstrates mastery at all levels of testing (thru eighth level) and is in high school, he has the ability to function at his chronological grade level in the high school curriculum.

IMPORTANT When deciding on which tests to give your students, be sure and give a test that starts two grade levels below your students current grade. For High School students, give them the English and Intermediate Math Diag. Tests. Even though these tests only go through level eight, you want to be sure they have mastered concepts to this point. If your High School student passes the tests with no problems, then you can start them on the appropriate level for their grade (an eleventh grader in eleventh level English) or put them in the subject they need next (if they have had Algebra I then put them in Geometry).

School of Tomorrow refers to each grade as a curriculum level. Throughout the academic year, a student may be working on a different level of PACE work in each subject, depending on his ability and accomplishments or how he was placed by diagnostic testing. School of Tomorrow PACEs are marked only with numbers, and no grade level is ever used. “What about a grade classification for my student?” You may classify your student in a grade according to their age, not by level of work.

Setting up a Learning Center at Home Here are some practical considerations that will make it easier for you to use School of Tomorrow at home: Select a room in which your student can work with minimal distractions and make sure it has good lighting. This can be the corner of a living room, bedroom, or dining room. You will want to provide some place in the room for a bulletin board where your student’s Goal Chart and Star Chart can be displayed. Each student you have should have their own individual work space. You will need to provide a scoring and testing area. This needs to be near the area where the one supervising will be most of the school day, so scoring and testing can be visually supervised.

Record Keeping Record keeping is of utmost importance. The following items can be purchased in a ACE Home School Record Keeping Kit. Daily Goal Cards are used to enter the exact PACE page numbers to be completed each day in each subject. The Student Progress Chart or Star Chart is a motivational tool. Each time the student completes a PACE the student places a stick-on star in the appropriate space on his chart. The Supervisor’s Progress Card is used to record PACE test scores and the Progress Report Card for quarterly reports and grades. The Permanent Record card serves as a transcript for recording end of the year grades.

Beginning Work in the PACEs After your child has been diagnosed, and the PACEs prescribed for his appropriate level, (including any learning gap PACEs), issue the lowest numbered PACE in each subject to the student. Remove the final test from the center of the PACE. Lower level students should read aloud to you the “Objectives” and “Vocabulary” on page one. Have the student scan the PACE and read over the self-test at the end of the PACE. Now the student can begin work, always using a pencil. This is where your Daily Goal Cards comes into use. On the Daily Goal Card write in the page numbers you want the student to complete for the school day. Students on the first four levels should complete 3 to 4 pages of work a day in each subject. Students on levels 5 to 7 at least 4 pages in each subject ,and levels 8 and up at between 4 and 6 pages. Eventually train your student to set their own page goals each day.