ACE Methodology Terms
PACE
Definition: Packet of Accelerated Christian Education. A self-contained workbook covering one topic or unit within a subject, designed for self-paced, individualized learning. Details:- Every school starts with the shared ICCE Africa catalog, covering the core subjects numbered from 1001, Bible Reading, and the elective and Lifepac courses. Elective and Lifepac courses are identified by a course code rather than a PACE number.
- Alongside the shared catalog, an administrator can add your school’s own subjects and PACEs, and can correct the page count or level on a booklet that does not match your printed copy.
- Each student works through PACEs in sequence within a subject. A student cannot be assigned PACE 1015 until every earlier PACE below it in that subject has been passed, unless an administrator records a progression override with an intervention plan. Courses identified by a code sit outside this numeric sequence.
Goal Check
Definition: The daily accountability system where students set PACE page goals each morning and staff mark actual progress at the end of the day. Components:- Morning: set the goal (a target end page for each active PACE; the start page is derived automatically from where the student last left off).
- Through the day: the student works toward the goal.
- End of day: staff mark the actual end page reached.
- Zion computes the variance between actual and goal.
- Reports summarize the day or week.
The Routine
Definition: A full-screen, one-student-at-a-time guided flow that runs Goal Check for an entire learning centre in a single session. There are two of them: the Morning Routine, for setting goals, and End of Day, for marking results. Both save into the same Goal Check records as the standalone entry screens, so nothing is kept separately. How it works:- Starting a routine queues every active student in the centre.
- Staff step through students one at a time, entering a goal end page in the morning, or a Hit, Missed, or Partial result with actual pages at the end of the day.
- A session can be paused and resumed later, and staff can go back, skip a student, jump to any student from a roster list, or skip all remaining students to finish early.
- Some schools require a supervisor or administrator to approve a session’s morning goals before they are considered final. A monitor cannot approve.
Learning Centre
Definition: A classroom or learning space where students work on PACEs under staff supervision. It is also the scoping unit in Zion: every student belongs to one learning centre, and a supervisor or monitor sees only the students in the centres they are assigned to. In Zion:- Determines which staff member sees which students across Goal Check, attendance, grading, behaviour, and homework.
- Administrators see every centre in the school. Supervisors and monitors only ever see their assigned centres, no matter which filters they set on screen.
- Used to filter dashboards, reports, and exports.
- Each centre can carry its own timezone, for schools that operate across more than one.
Supervisor
Definition: Staff member responsible for one or more learning centres: running the daily routine, monitoring student progress, entering grades and behaviour records, and generating centre reports. In Zion:- Scoped to assigned learning centres only.
- Can set goals, mark progress, log behaviour, enter and moderate grades (if delegated), and generate reports for those centres.
Monitor
Definition: Staff member who supports the daily routine and other centre-level data entry (goals, progress, homework verification, behaviour logging) within their assigned learning centres. In Zion:- Scoped to assigned learning centres only, the same as a supervisor.
- Cannot approve morning-goal sign-off sessions or perform administrator-only actions such as deleting an academic term.
Variance
Definition: The difference between actual pages completed and goal pages set for a student on a given day. How it is worked out: Take the total pages the student actually completed and subtract the total pages they were aiming for. Interpretation:- Positive: the student exceeded the goal.
- Zero: the student met the goal exactly.
- Negative: the student missed the goal.
Completion Rate
Definition: The percentage of students who met or exceeded their daily goal. How it is worked out: Count the students who completed or exceeded their goal, divide by the number of students marked that day, and read it as a percentage. See Also: Supervisor DashboardGrading and Moderation Terms
Test Type
Definition: Every score entered in Zion has a test type: PACE test, final test, or self test. A self test is an ungraded readiness check and always finalizes straight away. A PACE test or final test is a graded score and may go through moderation. See Also: Grading Overview, Score EntryActivity PACE
Definition: A PACE that a student completes rather than sits a test for, such as a practical or project booklet. It is marked done instead of scored, and staff can mark a whole group done in one pass. See Also: Score EntryPrior PACE
Definition: A PACE a student finished before joining your school, or before you started using Zion. Recording one backfills the student’s history so their progress and reports read correctly from day one, without disturbing the current term’s work. See Also: Score EntryModeration Floor
Definition: The grade level at and above which a graded score enters the moderation pipeline instead of finalizing immediately. The default floor is Grade 8, and it is configurable per school. See Also: ModerationModeration Stages
Definition: The stages a graded score moves through under moderation. A self test never enters moderation at all.
Each stage records its own mark, so you can see what the first-line, internal, and external moderators each awarded rather than only the final figure.
See Also: Moderation, Audit Trail
Attendance and Behaviour Terms
Behaviour Points
Definition: The point value attached to a behaviour record. Every record is one of three types, and the points have to match the type. Merit points are zero or positive, demerit points are zero or negative, and an incident can carry either. In Zion:- Categories, each with a default point value, are set up by an administrator. A category can be archived but never permanently removed, so past records stay intact.
- A student’s balance adds up every record ever logged against them, not only the ones currently on screen.
- A public note on a record is visible to parents. A private staff note is never shown to parents.
- A record can be edited or removed after it has been logged.
Homework Terms
Homework Verification
Definition: The step where a teacher or staff member confirms that a homework assignment is done. Verification is a status change, not a grade or feedback entry. Statuses:- Pending: not yet marked done by the family or verified by staff.
- Parent done: the family marked the assignment done; awaiting teacher confirmation.
- Teacher verified: confirmed done, whether the family marked it first or staff marked it directly.
- Missed: past due and never verified. A missed assignment can still be verified late.
PACE, Roster, and Records Terms
Centre Scoping
Definition: The access rule that limits a supervisor or monitor to the learning centres they are assigned to. It holds everywhere, no matter which filters they set on screen. An administrator is not limited this way and sees the whole school. Where it applies: Student rosters, Goal Check, grading and moderation delegation, behaviour records, homework, attendance, and reports all apply centre scoping to non-administrator staff. See Also: Learning Centres, Roles & PermissionsPermanent Record
Definition: The multi-year cumulative academic record for a student: percentage, PACEs completed, and attendance, broken down by year and subject. It does not include credits, GPA, ranking, or honor roll. Who can view it: Administrators, supervisors, and monitors can view any in-org student’s permanent record. Only an administrator can manage it. A parent can view their own linked child’s record, read-only. See Also: Permanent RecordProgress Card
Definition: The printable Supervisor’s Progress Card. It lays out a student’s PACE journey across the year on one page, with completed PACEs colour-coded by the term they were finished in. It downloads as a PDF and can be emailed to a parent. See Also: Progress CardsReadiness Levels
Definition: The two levels that come before Level 1 for early learners. Reading Readiness (RR) covers the reading sequence, and ABC covers the ABCs with Ace and Christi. They are listed as separate levels in the catalog and in the level filters. See Also: PACE CatalogSubscription Status
Definition: Whether a school’s subscription is currently active and in good standing. If it lapses, staff are shown a screen asking for the subscription to be renewed instead of being able to carry on entering data. See Also: Billing OverviewAcademic Term
Definition: A school term set up in Zion for tracking Goal Check, grading, and reporting between two dates. Only one term can be the current one at a time, and making a new term current takes that status away from the previous one. Locking a term: A term can be locked once it is over. A locked term stops accepting new entries dated inside it, so a closed term’s results cannot drift after the fact. See Also: Academic TermsStatus and States
Student Status
Active:- The student is currently enrolled, appears in Goal Check, dashboards, and reports, and is counted in all metrics.
- The student has withdrawn, transferred, or graduated. Hidden from active lists by default. Cannot have new goals set. Past records are kept. Whoever deactivates the student records a category and a reason, so the roster explains itself later.
Goal Check Status
Not Started:- Progress has not been marked for the day.
- Actual pages met or slightly exceeded the goal.
- Actual pages significantly exceeded the goal.
- Actual pages fell short of the goal.
Acronyms
ACE: Accelerated Christian Education, the educational methodology and curriculum provider Zion is built for. PACE: Packet of Accelerated Christian Education. CSV: Comma-Separated Values, the spreadsheet file format used for bulk import and export. Excel, Numbers, and Google Sheets all save to it. KPI: Key Performance Indicator, a summary figure shown on dashboards. DOB: Date of Birth. ICCE: International Certificate of Christian Education, the accreditation body whose Africa curriculum Zion ships as the shared PACE catalog. RR: Reading Readiness, one of the two readiness levels that come before Level 1.Related References
Roles & Permissions
User roles and access levels
CSV Templates
CSV file formats for imports
PACE Catalog
The full PACE numbering reference
Goal Check Overview
How Goal Check works in Zion