Challenger School - Avery Ranch

On a basis of our neighbors’ recommendation, we applied our 4 year old for the fall semester. They asked for a 90 minutes “observation” window, so I took my daughter in. Since I can’t leave w/o a waiver, I stayed and observed the full session from outside (without her knowing). On the plus side, it was very structured learning. They sang, danced, and learned phonetics at predefined times. I am impressed with the curriculum and the teachers seem to know what they are doing. On the other hand, there were at least 10 kids per teacher. There wasn’t a lot of individual attention. Both teachers spent 10 minutes w/ her in the beginning, but then just left her with the rest of the class. There were many song and dance drills and my daughter couldn’t follow any of it. I can tell she was extremely uncomfortable – and when she feels uncomfortable, she freezes. Eventually I can tell she did feel more comfortable, especially after playground time. By then she had no trouble following instructions to wash her hand, sit at the table, and wait till command given to eat snack (she had been to daycare since month 3). But unfortunately that’s when the teacher tells her time is up. And here’s an interesting observation: at no time during the 90 minutes session did any kids ever come up and say hi to her – not a single Hi, or even a wave. They all seemed to be individually preoccupied by the program. Now the feedback today: the director told me that the teachers felt my daughter had trouble communicating, listening and following instructions. Hmmm… You know, I get it, this school is all about traditional learning - you learn what the teacher teaches, in a very structured format. At the same time, they seem to think you have to fit into one of their rigid molds. And how can you call it assessment when you 1) give only a 90 min window, and 2) not giving the kid enough individual interaction to let her personality show? All they seem to care is whether she can keep up with what the group is doing. For their information, my daughter actually did learn quite a bit yesterday – in the car she was repeating to me the phonetic songs and tells me how to count sides of a shape. On top of that, as shy as she is at times, my daughter is one of the 3 alpha-girls of her current daycare and she’s full of imaginary games and ideas – but perhaps this school doesn’t care about that? Long story short, after the feedback I have zero desire to send my daughter there. I told them our values don’t seem to match and I would like to withdraw our application. Edit: 3 years later. My daughter is now admitted to the Talented and Gifted program (TAG) at her elementary school. She did just fine w/o 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.

This is a great place for your children, they will learn and enjoy while they do it.

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.

Parents, there are exemplary public and charter schools here in Austin area which provides a complete learning experience in a diverse environment. Don't get excited about a place which lacks diversity of any kind. And the management is extremely arrogant with no respect for families. I agree with all the reviews given here by other families.