ACE awareness for HS Counselors

[MNomadic]

I am really hoping to get my son to do at least the ones with no touchstones.  He’s only 15 and writing is not his strength.  I am even considering bribing him by offering like $10 per completed course or something.  We are already paying for Catholic High School.  If he could collect some college credits along the way, that would be great.  I think he could easily do the History, economics and environmental science ones, at least.   If we can continue to afford HS tuition, we will have paid about $40,000 into his education.  He gets no support there for his ADHD so his grades are all over the map.   I don’t think they will put him in an AP or CCP while he is there.

ACE credits like a Sophia class with a Touchstone could be a great way for him to practice his writing. he'll need writing for college and it's just a useful skill to have. He's likely to have several careers during his lifetime. One never knows what skills you may need in the future. 


I'm not surprised a high school counselor doesn't know anything about ACE. When I graduated from high school it took 3 people to figure out if I had enough credits! I had more than enough credits. The issue came down to did I have enough music credits to get my Regents diploma. It took them months to figure that out. I did end up getting the Regents diploma but it was meaningless outside of NY.

This. Writing is not my strength either but I work on it. I did some extra courses through Sophia to work on my writing. What better way than a low-stakes environment where "failing" or a low "grade" doesn't matter but passing can help you get closer to a degree? Not only will writing be imperative for college, but almost every job post I see mentions oral and written communication as being necessary skills. 


"Weaknesses only stay weaknesses when you don't actively work to strengthen them."

- MNomadic

[Vle045]

I am really hoping to get my son to do at least the ones with no touchstones.  He’s only 15 and writing is not his strength.  I am even considering bribing him by offering like $10 per completed course or something.  We are already paying for Catholic High School.  If he could collect some college credits along the way, that would be great.  I think he could easily do the History, economics and environmental science ones, at least.   If we can continue to afford HS tuition, we will have paid about $40,000 into his education.  He gets no support there for his ADHD so his grades are all over the map.   I don’t think they will put him in an AP or CCP while he is there.

ACE credits like a Sophia class with a Touchstone could be a great way for him to practice his writing. he'll need writing for college and it's just a useful skill to have. He's likely to have several careers during his lifetime. One never knows what skills you may need in the future. 


I'm not surprised a high school counselor doesn't know anything about ACE. When I graduated from high school it took 3 people to figure out if I had enough credits! I had more than enough credits. The issue came down to did I have enough music credits to get my Regents diploma. It took them months to figure that out. I did end up getting the Regents diploma but it was meaningless outside of NY.

This. Writing is not my strength either but I work on it. I did some extra courses through Sophia to work on my writing. What better way than a low-stakes environment where "failing" or a low "grade" doesn't matter but passing can help you get closer to a degree? Not only will writing be imperative for college, but almost every job post I see mentions oral and written communication as being necessary skills. 


"Weaknesses only stay weaknesses when you don't actively work to strengthen them."

- MNomadic

I do agree with that for adults and maybe motivated typical teens.  But he is a HS Freshman with ADHD.  If I tried to toss something that involved MORE writing outside of school, he’d skip it entirely.   He still has plenty of time to work on writing.   At this point, I am looking at things he could easily tackle and get something out of it.   Overwhelming him would only set him up for failure.  Baby steps…. Baby steps…

[MNomadic]

I am really hoping to get my son to do at least the ones with no touchstones.  He’s only 15 and writing is not his strength.  I am even considering bribing him by offering like $10 per completed course or something.  We are already paying for Catholic High School.  If he could collect some college credits along the way, that would be great.  I think he could easily do the History, economics and environmental science ones, at least.   If we can continue to afford HS tuition, we will have paid about $40,000 into his education.  He gets no support there for his ADHD so his grades are all over the map.   I don’t think they will put him in an AP or CCP while he is there.

ACE credits like a Sophia class with a Touchstone could be a great way for him to practice his writing. he'll need writing for college and it's just a useful skill to have. He's likely to have several careers during his lifetime. One never knows what skills you may need in the future. 


I'm not surprised a high school counselor doesn't know anything about ACE. When I graduated from high school it took 3 people to figure out if I had enough credits! I had more than enough credits. The issue came down to did I have enough music credits to get my Regents diploma. It took them months to figure that out. I did end up getting the Regents diploma but it was meaningless outside of NY.

This. Writing is not my strength either but I work on it. I did some extra courses through Sophia to work on my writing. What better way than a low-stakes environment where "failing" or a low "grade" doesn't matter but passing can help you get closer to a degree? Not only will writing be imperative for college, but almost every job post I see mentions oral and written communication as being necessary skills. 


"Weaknesses only stay weaknesses when you don't actively work to strengthen them."

- MNomadic

I do agree with that for adults and maybe motivated typical teens.  But he is a HS Freshman with ADHD.  If I tried to toss something that involved MORE writing outside of school, he’d skip it entirely.   He still has plenty of time to work on writing.   At this point, I am looking at things he could easily tackle and get something out of it.   Overwhelming him would only set him up for failure.  Baby steps…. Baby steps…

True, baby steps are important.

[dfrecore]

HS Counselors haven't a clue - they know traditional and only that. Even College Advisors barely know anything. I helped a friend's daughter get CLEP accepted at her CA CSU-system school, the State of CA says they MUST accept CLEP, the school had a written policy showing what they accepted (the exams she took were on there with very high passing scores), and she STILL had trouble getting them to give her the credit - she had to fight tooth & nail for it.

Many (most) people stuck in the system are very stuck! They LOVE the system, and hate anyone who fights against it or tries to change it in any way. They will actively fight you to keep it the same, or fight policies they don't agree with.

[Vle045]

You aren’t kidding about being stuck. There are many instances where they say.. this is how we’ve always done it. Or… this is what is in the handbook. OK, so tell me how it helps to suspend a kid or give saturday school to a kid because they were a minute or two late a few times? Literally just a minute or two… during bad weather. Ya know what that inspires? Absenteeism. Truly. One morning was just too hectic. There was no way we would make it in time for school. We would have been five minutes late. So I called him in sick and was done with it. Better than a 3 day suspension. That is one of the most asinine policies. Preparing for work life? Nah.

[dfrecore]

You aren’t kidding about being stuck.  There are many instances where they say.. this is how we’ve always done it.  Or… this is what is in the handbook.  OK, so tell me how it helps to suspend a kid or give saturday school to a kid because they were a minute or two late a few times?  Literally just a minute or two… during bad weather.  Ya know what that inspires?  Absenteeism.  Truly.  One morning was just too hectic.  There was no way we would make it in time for school. We would have been five minutes late.  So I called him in sick and was done with it.  Better than a 3 day suspension.  That is one of the most asinine policies.  Preparing for work life?  Nah.

I love giving out-of-school suspensions for stuff.  I mean, a troubled teen...being "home" for 5 or 10 school days. Yeah, seems like a great plan.  How about we have an IN-school suspension, make them go sit in a room with an adult there to watch them, and actually make them do their schoolwork but not spend a moment with their friends?

[ss20ts]

You aren’t kidding about being stuck.  There are many instances where they say.. this is how we’ve always done it.  Or… this is what is in the handbook.  OK, so tell me how it helps to suspend a kid or give saturday school to a kid because they were a minute or two late a few times?  Literally just a minute or two… during bad weather.  Ya know what that inspires?  Absenteeism.  Truly.  One morning was just too hectic.  There was no way we would make it in time for school. We would have been five minutes late.  So I called him in sick and was done with it.  Better than a 3 day suspension.  That is one of the most asinine policies.  Preparing for work life?  Nah.

Suspension for being late? That's ridiculous! I took the school bus to school and was late in the winter quite often because of bus delays. There were times the bus never showed up so I never went to school. Suspending a kid for being late is idiotic. If you're going to suspend them they have no incentive to show up at all. And they wonder why they have the problems they have. I've been late for work for a variety of reasons. Most often due to weather. No one has ever sent me home for a few days for being late. I just wouldn't come back. I'd find a new job.

[bjcheung77]

Plenty of high schools and many colleges who are on the ACE National Registry/NCCRS system don't even know they are part of the system or how that works. High schools focus on requirements for state recognized alternative credit options and colleges require specific requirements and only take AP, CLEP, non-ACE/NCCRS options.

Basically, they rarely use ACE/NCCRS as they have no need for it due to AP, CLEP, internal credit challenge examinations or their own personal PLA systems in place for alternative credit, in addition to adult upgrading streams, and their target market really isn't for Adults coming back to high school or reentering College.

I've tried contacting several colleges that are on the ACE/NCCRS credit systems and all of them are in the list of accepting credit for them, but when I asked how many credits/which providers they accept, they wouldn't even know, I went up to the director level and was told they do accept them but the "process" was not yet complete.

[Vle045]

Plenty of high schools and many colleges who are on the ACE National Registry/NCCRS system don't even know they are part of the system or how that works.  High schools focus on requirements for state recognized alternative credit options and colleges require specific requirements and only take AP, CLEP, non-ACE/NCCRS options.

Basically, they rarely use ACE/NCCRS as they have no need for it due to AP, CLEP, internal credit challenge examinations or their own personal PLA systems in place for alternative credit, in addition to adult upgrading streams, and their target market really isn't for Adults coming back to high school or reentering College.  

I've tried contacting several colleges that are on the ACE/NCCRS credit systems and all of them are in the list of accepting credit for them, but when I asked how many credits/which providers they accept, they wouldn't even know, I went up to the director level and was told they do accept them but the "process" was not yet complete.

It’s all so crazy how it varies.  It’s like some secret club.  LOL.  I told my son that he should do the Sophia courses that correspond to the classes he has now.  Like US History…. Algebra…. Of course, he never takes my advice because…. What do I know, right?   I just keep thinking back to how I never took the tests to get credits for my AP classes.  I ended up with the same dang awful textbook in college that I had for High school history.