Accelerated Christian Education is (ACE) school curriculum is an American educational system for grade 1-12. ACE claims to serve over 7,000 schools and numerous home-schoolling families.
The Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program clearly falls short of academic standards in any developed country. Although the program claims to advance through grade 12 of high school, its academic content and level of difficulty could barely reach grade 6. The program is now facing widespread criticism from both secular and the Christian communities.
1. All about recalling, no thinking skills required (or even involved)
The curriculum is entirely based on fill-in-the-blanks and rote recall, which has been criticized widely by educational researchers.
A study carried out by Speck and Prideaux (1993) exposes the wide use of recalling facts in the ACE curriculum: "The work consists of low-level cognitive tasks that emphasize simple association and recall activities."
Flemming and Hunt conclude in Phi Delta Kappa that "If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world — one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall — then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking."
Assessments predominately involve reading a very short passage and then filling in the blanks with answers directly copied from the passage. Even basic comprehension skills are not required in ACE High School English and Social Studies modules. E.g. a ACE’s 9th grade test asks:
Questions from ACE 12th grade tests:
http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/criticism-of-ace-from-christians/
http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/4472/accelerated-christian-education-is-a-useless-b-a-helicopter-c-fudge-cake
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/mar/27/fundamentalist-schools-accelerated-christian-education
David C. Berliner. "Educational Psychology Meets the Christian Right: Differing Views of Children, Schooling, Teaching, and Learning". Arizona State University. 6 April 2007.
Hunter, 1987, "Accelerated Christian Education Inc.: Marching to a different drummer.", cited in Speck and Prideaux (1993), "Fundamentalist Education and Creation Science", Australian Journal of Education, Nov 1993 vol. 37 no. 3. pp. 279-295.
Fleming, D.; Hunt, T. (1987). "The World as Seen by Students in Accelerated Christian Education". Phi Delta Kappan (68): pp. 518–523.
http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/why-fundamentalism-is-not-faith/
Flemming and Hunt conclude in Phi Delta Kappa that "If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world — one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall — then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking."
2. Indoctrinating American-centric fundamentalist ideology rather than teaching true Christian faith
The aim of the ACE program is designed to ensure every student is indoctrinated with the most conservative Christian fundamentalist worldview possible. Absolutely no attempt is made to prepare students for the knowledge or thinking skills required to real academic world. Neither critical thinking nor evaluation of opinion is taught or encouraged.
3. Elementary-level assessments at high school
“The very next event on God’s calendar is the __________ Coming of Jesus Christ.” A. First B. Second C. Sixth
Egypt is located on the continent of ____________.
Our _____________ are limited, but our wants are unlimited.
When demand is greater than supply, prices are usually _________ than when the reverse is true.
______________ is a single business that is the only source for a good or service. A. Monopoly, B. Trust, C. Entrepreneur, D. Competition."
Questions from ACE 12th grade tests:
To become a journalist, one should earn a bachelor’s degree in (art, journalism, music).
Bible (writers, printers, designers, translators) translate the Bible into other languages.
Mary I, Queen of England (1555-1558), was called “__________________” because of her persecution of the Protestants. A. Happy Mary B. Bloody Mary C. Crazy Elizabeth
No essays are required throughout ACE's high school social studies program. No assessment component in ACE involves concepts, comparisons, evaluation of ideas, or any form of higher-order thinking.
ACE Grade 10-12 Biology / Chemistry / Physics also does not go beyond middle school level. It requires no understanding of scientific concepts to achieve 100% in its memorization-based multiple choice and fill-in-the-blanks questions. Usually these questions are copied directly from the original text, with a word randomly removed so the student has to fill in the missing word.
4. ACE exams are comprised of the exact same questions shown in the review.
Each PACE package offers a review section called "Self-Test" and "Checkup". The ACE exams only ask the exact questions from these Self-Test and Checkups. The questions might be multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank, or you might have to select the correct definition from a list. But the questions themselves are unchanged, even in wording.
Sources:
http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/4472/accelerated-christian-education-is-a-useless-b-a-helicopter-c-fudge-cake
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2013/mar/27/fundamentalist-schools-accelerated-christian-education
David C. Berliner. "Educational Psychology Meets the Christian Right: Differing Views of Children, Schooling, Teaching, and Learning". Arizona State University. 6 April 2007.
Hunter, 1987, "Accelerated Christian Education Inc.: Marching to a different drummer.", cited in Speck and Prideaux (1993), "Fundamentalist Education and Creation Science", Australian Journal of Education, Nov 1993 vol. 37 no. 3. pp. 279-295.
Fleming, D.; Hunt, T. (1987). "The World as Seen by Students in Accelerated Christian Education". Phi Delta Kappan (68): pp. 518–523.
http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/why-fundamentalism-is-not-faith/
