Ada Christian School

Ada Christian School is an absolutely wonderful school. ACS provides excellence in academics, a caring and committed faculty and staff, a wide variety of extra-curricular activities (notably their outdoor education program), and much more all while remaining committed to a Christian ethic and worldview. ACS is a Christian elementary school and middle school (through 8th grade) that is committed to superior academics and enrichment that provide their students with a framework that is consistent with the Bible and the historic Christian faith. In a time when Christian values are coming under attack or being revised this is more important than ever.While racial diversity is lacking, the ACS community accurately represents the demographics of the community it is in as one would expect. Racial diversity is desired and welcomed but achieving that is difficult given the demographics of the area. My kids have grown not only academically at ACS but spiritually, socially and emotionally. Some of my kids have required additional work to provide more growth and rigor, some have needed emotional support and still others have needed academic support, all have been met and exceeded my expectations. The teachers and staff cannot be praised enough! They care deeply for their students and pour their hearts into them. I have been on the receiving end of their going above and beyond multiple times. If you are looking for a community that loves the Lord and each other while striving to fully equip students in all areas, this is the place for you. No school is perfect all the time but the foundation of Christ is what makes any challenge an opportunity to honor God and our neighbor. This school gets the most important things right and is a profound blessing to our lives!

A reviewer years ago said that ACS is a "Conservative School That Lacks A Progressive Platform", which is still a very accurate description of the school. There is excellent staff at the school, impressive resources, but a seemingly overall posture toward maintaining the status quo and being satisfied with mediocrity. A Christian school should be preparing students to go out and be productive members of society and also to promote Christianity out into the world. However, ACS seems to be primarily concerned with maintaining its own bubble. The administration lack the vision and courage to make ACS a leading source of Christian education. And as a result, the school sorely lacks diversity; diversity of people, thinking, and perspective. It's too bad, because ACS could be such a great place. If I'm being honest, my kids love ACS, so I would never pull them. But unfortunately, I can't say that I would recommend the school to prospective parents.

We have two children, one with special needs. Our oldest child with special needs attended Ada Christian for 3 years, our youngest child attended Ada Christian for 2 years. The teachers are fantastic and we will miss them dearly. However, when we decided to put our youngest child in public school this year, they told us their policy was that ALL of our children need to attend Ada Christian in order to offset the extra cost of our special needs child. When we pressed them further, they said they were incorrect, that our youngest could attend another school, but that because our special needs child required "additional expenses related to extra resources", we would be required to pay increased tuition compared to the other children at the school. Of note, Ada Christian has very limited resources for special needs children. There is an obvious need to increase support in this area. We appreciate the wonderful teachers we had there, but we were very disappointed in their policy that families with special needs children should pay more tuition than others to attend.

Living in forest hills and having access to very, very well rated and very free education--you would expect exceptional and hopefully unique education. However, ACS does little (in my opinion) to differentiate itself from Forest Hills. They almost fully adopted common core standards (a serious blow to my perception of the institution) and they do little to assist my child who is losing interest because the curriculum is just too simple. My child's previous teachers have provided extra material, but that has stopped this year. Why do I buy a small car every year to pay for an education that doesn't rise above the level of the free one (that also provides busing)? To go to a school where prayer is accepted and God is part of the curriculum? We can do that at home. And sadly, probably will. ACS just doesn't earn its cost. And common core aggravates me every time I review my children's homework or discuss their lessons from the day. I strongly, in fact, fervently encourage parents to research common core and why states and many educators deplore it's implentation. Perhaps Michigan will undue what has been done, and maybe ACS will thankfully follow suit.

We have been a part of ACS for many years and we did have two children graduate. Sadly, we are throwing in the towel after this year. As a former board member of ACS and being heavily involved in the inner-workings of this school, I simply have to fall in line with one of the above posts. Although ACS has its positives, strong leadership, specifically, the administration, is the problem. The culture of the school has changed dramatically and after a considerable about of prayer and strong consideration, we are moving on. My personal feeling is that ACS is still searching for their identity. It is a conservative school that lacks a progressive platform. For some, that is a good thing, but the culture of the school under the current leadership is clearly the reason why the school is struggling. The board is made up of good people but it is a mystery to many why they fail to recognize, and more importantly, act on the real problem. Until the administrative issues are addressed, ACS will continue on the path of simply being mediocre and our children simply deserve better.