Challenger School

We love Challenger! The school, teachers, curriculum have prepared our son for high school ahead, and we can’t be more thankful. The emphasis is on academics, but our son loves the material and the teachers. Thank you for helping us build a strong foundation for the future!

We absolutely loved Challenger! The administrators and teachers are kind and personable. They make a point of knowing every student’s name and greet them warmly every day. The school also has safety measures in place, including security personnel, which gives us peace of mind. That said, Challenger may not be the right fit for every child—it’s not a school that focuses heavily on emotional expression or creativity. However, if you're looking for a place that emphasizes traditional values, discipline, and a strong academic foundation, Challenger is the perfect choice. The curriculum is advanced, covering everything from good penmanship at a young age to public speaking. It’s wonderful for gifted learners. What sets Challenger apart is how it teaches children accountability, discipline, and excellence while still offering fun activities like cooking classes, Spanish lessons, and chess club. My daughter attended Challenger from kindergarten through the first half of second grade (we've since moved out of state and haven't been able to find anything comparable). The academic foundation she received there is evident—she’s ahead of her grade level and carries herself with a maturity that reflects the school’s influence. We are so grateful for the experience and feel Challenger has truly set her up for success.

We couldn't be happier with Challenger School. Yes, it is true, they do not allow children with discipline problems to disrupt the rest of the classroom. However, as a mother who had to remove my child from a top Montessori school because he was getting beat up, I think that's a good thing. This is a very academic school, but they make learning fun! My son comes home singing songs every day and he thinks it's super cool to learn about things like vowels and subtraction. Everywhere we go people are amazed at how much he knows... He just picks it up at Challenger, and it makes my job as a mom so much easier knowing that he will be reading before Kindergarten. He's happy to be there. He feels confident and secure and I can't imagine a better place to send my child. Edited, 1/2/16 My son adored this school. It was everything to him, and the administrators and teachers knew that. He is EXCEPTIONALLY bright, but they didn’t accept him back for 1st grade. We were forced (after 3 blissful years at Challenger) into public school. I had to lie to my son and tell him we could no longer afford Challenger, because I certainly wasn’t going to let him know he was kicked out in Kindergarten because he didn’t score in the top 90 percent of Iowa Basic test participants. Two years later, my son is depressed, yearns to go to Challenger again, begging and pleading why can’t he go back. And, what and I do say? This school is a soul-scorcher, as far as I’m concerned. They knew how much he loved this school. He is a hard working, rule-following student, but he was thrown to the wayside because his scores weren’t high enough (1 ½ years ago). My son has been struggling to find happiness ever since. I don’t get it.

My now first grader went to challenger for two years. His first year was amazing. His teachers were phenomenal, caring, and you could tell they truly loved teaching. He was reading early. Our second year was a completely different experience. Our son was having a hard time transitioning with our new baby coming and was acting out. This is developmentally normal for young kids to struggle when a new sibling comes along, but the teachers didn't really seem to be trained to handle the social/emotional issues of being a normal four year old. We asked for better communication because often we would find out days after he misbehaved that there was an issue. At that point it was hard for me to address misbehavior with my son when he acted out so long ago. We were told we would get weekly communication from the teachers (via calls or notes because teachers can't have email like most schools), and we didn't get any communication after the first week. I called Ms. Molly, the director, after my son came home very upset one day, and I also mentioned I wasn't receiving the feedback we had asked for previously. After that parent/teacher/director meeting, we finally started receiving weekly communication about his behavior. After our experience with my oldest son, we chose not to put our middle child at Challenger. My oldest is now thriving and in not only an academically wonderful school, but also a loving, caring, and globally focuses school. He left kinder on a second grade reading level. He has not had any of the behavioral "issues" that Challenger seemed to think he had (he never had them prior to his second year at Challenger either) If all you care about is that your child can read early, this is the place for you. If you care about education and your child's social/emotional development, this may not be the right choice for you. I'm a certified teacher (I've taught for over 15 years) and all of the public schools in the area for RRISD as well as LISD can offer better learning experiences that focus on the WHOLE child than Challenger.

Have a kid here and second kid will start next year and having sent kids to other pre-schools, Challenger is probably the most well run school. Teachers always engage with kids and at no time I have seen kids not behaving in the school, not even when it was non-class time. The teachers have been really very friendly and caring and go the extra mile to keep kids safe.