[2] ACE coordinates programs and activities in a number of areas related to higher education, including policy and advocacy, leadership, attainment and innovation, internationalization, and research.

ACE assisted in drafting and adopting criteria that reflected the basic standards of a sound postsecondary education and developed peer evaluation procedures to ensure an institution's academic quality.

[7] In 1938, ACE began studying the effects of racism on black children in the United States and published a series of reports on equal opportunity in education, including Children of Bondage: The Personality Development of Negro Youth in the Urban South[8] by Allison Davis and John Dollard (1940) and Growing Up in the Black Belt: Negro Youth in the Rural South[9] by Charles Spurgeon Johnson (1941).

In 1942, the Council spearheaded the General Educational Development (GED) test, a series of standardized exams used to measure a service member's proficiency in science, mathematics, social studies, reading, and writing among those who did not complete high school.

Also in 1946, ACE worked to support the creation and passage of Senator J. William Fulbright’s scholarship program, intended to advance mutual understanding of U.S. democracy both at home and overseas.

Later that year, at President Truman's urging, ACE helped establish the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which provides international exchange opportunities for American scholars and administrators.

The office was designed to help ACE's members interpret legislation, eliminate discriminatory practices, and increase women's participation at all levels of higher education—from students to professors to administrators.

To foster results after the legislation's delayed implementation in 1977, ACE conducted a national survey of college freshmen who self-identified as disabled and then recommended accommodations and services to its member institutions.

In 2000, ACE created the Higher Education and the Handicapped Resource Center (HEATH) to serve as the national clearinghouse of information regarding technical assistance in disability access.

A series of NCAAT studies published through 1992 examined ways community college curriculums could improve content, structure, and portability to best facilitate students' pursuit of a four-year degree.

ACE initiated the College Is Possible campaign in 1998 to bring awareness to the variety of scholarships, low-interest loans, and grants available to students of all academic and financial backgrounds.

After implementing Solutions for Our Future, a three-year campaign about the importance of higher education in society, ACE worked with the Ad Council and the Lumina Foundation to create 2007's KnowHow2GO, a program designed to help low-income, first-generation middle school students prepare for college.

That same year, ACE helped convene the National Commission on Higher Education Attainment to improve college student retention and degree completion.