The ACE Solution
ACE Scholarships is the only organization of its kind in Colorado that empowers lowincome families with the financial leverage to access high-quality education options for
their children.
ACE helps kids who need it the most: 70% of ACE students are minority; 90% of our
partner schools serve inner-city communities; and 100% of our students are lowincome. Without a scholarship, these children are left to take their chances in schools
that have historically failed them. They seek options; they seek the opportunity to attend
a quality school.
Specifically, ACE serves low-income families who qualify for the federal Free and
Reduced Lunch Program; to qualify for FRL, a family must make less than 185% of the
federal poverty level, which is $40,793 for a family of four.
In 2011, the average ACE family has four children and lives on a household income of
$24,095.
The ACE K-12 Scholarship Program provides up to 50% of private school tuition, with a
maximum of $2,000 per year for grades K-8 and $3,000 per year for grades 9-12.
Parents or guardians are responsible for the other half of the tuition. This partnership
between ACE, the parent and child, and the school has proven to increase parental
involvement and student academic achievement.
ACE is unique in that we give parents the opportunity to select the school that best fits
their child’s needs, rather than allowing the family’s geographic location or financial
resources to determine the school. ACE scholarships are purposely based on financial
need, rather than merit, to provide alternatives to students with high risk factors who
have struggled academically or socially in their assigned public school.
The results of our programs have been extraordinary.

The ACE class of 2011 had a 91% graduation rate and our graduation rate
over the past decade has consistently been in the 90 percent range. This
achievement improves not only their quality of life, but our state economy and
society.

ACE scholars in their junior year had a composite average of 20.3 on the
2011 ACT college entrance exam. ACE scholars experience greater academic
achievement than their low-income peers in public schools across Colorado and
are prepared for college-level coursework.

100% of ACE’s 2010 high school graduates attended college and every
2011 graduate has plans to go on to higher education. Over the past decade,
ACE graduates have attended 97 different colleges and universities, and chosen
numerous career paths – real estate, international business, oil and gas, nursing,
computer science, criminal justice, architecture, education, psychology,
economics and law, to name a few.
In addition to higher graduation rates and ACT scores, younger ACE students have
shown significant academic achievement. ACE conducted a four year independent
research project conducted with John Cooney, Ph.D. to scientifically determine if private
school instruction has a positive effect on scholastic performance. Dr. Cooney’s most
recent findings provide exciting and significant evidence that private school instruction
for the low-income, at-risk youth supported by ACE yields significant gains in reading
achievement while allowing students to remain at-par with students nationally in
mathematics. Significant findings include:

After entering private school, students were almost twice as likely to be reading
at the “Advanced” or “Proficient” levels as the “Partially Proficient” or
“Unsatisfactory” levels providing evidence of the positive effect private
school has on reading achievement.

Students who enter a private school in later grades are more likely to be reading
at the “Advanced” of “Proficient” levels than the “Partially Proficient” or
“Unsatisfactory” levels than students who enter a private school in the early
grades.
By improving academic performance, graduation rates and college matriculation, ACE
helps hundreds of low-income students obtain the skills needed to become successful,
contributing members of society and prepared to succeed in the increasingly
competitive job market.