Assessment at ACE Academy

As part of the Admissions process at ACE Academy, we require a letter of acceptance into a public school GT program or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children — Fourth Edition (WISC) for children six years and older or the Wechsler Primary and Preschool Scale of Intelligence — Third Edition (WPPSI) for children under six.

Although assessment is offered through ACE, you are not required to have your child's testing done here. However, we recommend using a psychologist familiar with bright children because there are specific ways that a gifted child may respond to the test differently from the average child. The Wechsler Intelligence tests are the most commonly recognized and used aptitude tests by psychologists in the nation. They were selected because they are a good vehicle to assess a range of abilities and allow the child to demonstrate a high level of cognitive reasoning.

Our goal at ACE is to serve a fairly homogeneous group of learners who can inspire each other and feel compatible. Just as a gifted child frequently feels out of place in a traditional classroom, which may lead to negative self perceptions, children who do not demonstrate a high level of abstract thinking would not likely feel that they belong at ACE and might lose confidence in themselves. Our goals at ACE include helping a child love school, love learning and develop positive self-esteem. Thus, we would be doing a child a disservice if we required them to stretch too far. That said, of course a child is much more than any IQ score; many additional factors are considered for admission including past school performance, motivation, readiness, social and verbal abilities, work ethic, perseverance, and family support.

It is important to note that although we want to see our students demonstrate a high level of cognitive ability, there is still variation among the student body — our students have strengths in different areas, have different learning styles and many have the same side learning issues as any other population, i.e., dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, sensory integration problems and visual difficulties, etc. Aside from the fact that they all think at a high cognitive level, ACE students are as diverse as any other population.