I am seeing some districts in my area getting a "grant" for this ACE program to come in and help bring up test scores. I hear horror stories from band directors about it, but nothing really first hand. Does anyone have this at their school? How has it affected you and your program? I am worried it will make it's way to my district next.
Re: ACE program?
Posted by Inner-City BD II on 4/14/2025, 7:34 am, in reply to "ACE program?"
It is 100% "STAAR subjects take priority over EVERYTHING else" in a school.
You'll lose half your eighth grade and a third of your seventh grade if you're lucky - and then it'll severely limit schedule flexibility for sixth grade as well.
One of my feeders has had ACE for five years. The program was a consistent borderline second division program for years and was trending upward. This is at an inner-city MS with no lessons in a highly competitive region. The first year of ACE, they dropped to a 3 on stage and a 3 in SR. The second year, 4 and 3. The third year, 4 and 4. Now they're not even able to put together a viable ensemble.
It's not the teacher, either - the person leading that program had been there for five years *before* ACE was implemented. It killed their band. They can't get kids in the classes they need, they can't keep kids enrolled, and the admin is 100% about bumping test scores over everything else.
