If you value education, and if you think a superior education will give your children broader opportunities when they grow up, then Challenger School is a good school to consider. The public schools have made hard choices about what they no longer have time to teach.Challenger, on the other hand, still teaches kids sentence structure and sentence diagramming, cursive writing, and math skills that help these kids score at the highest levels on national standardized tests. Not only that, but Challenger teaches pride in our country, and an understanding of the principles upon which our country was founded. I feel lucky that we found this school when our kids were young. Challenger School provides a superior education.

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.

Parents, there are exemplary public and charter schools here in Austin area which provides a complete learning experience in a diverse environment. Dont 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.

Rude front desk staff. Lady doesnt know how to talk to customer. We are running their business. Dont under estimate the customers. School is nothing without the students. But we have tons of schools to pick from. No thank you challenger. My kid will go some where else and I already talked to 3 other parents and they have the same feedback about challenger. Sorry challenger you lost your charm in Austin.

Great focus on learning. Well thought through curriculum across grades and amazing teachers. My daughter keeps saying she loves to learn and is never bored or not challenged.

Our son attended challenger pre school from 2016 - 2018. We liked the way the program was structured. He learned a lot and loved it. Teachers and the staff take genuine efforts to motivate, guide and challenge the students.

Love Challenger for my five year old. He has learned so much and he loves to learn now.

We couldnt 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 thats 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 its 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. Hes happy to be there. He feels confident and secure and I cant imagine a better place to send my child.Edited, 1/2/16My 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.

Challenger school had been one of the key contributors for our childs development years of Pre-K and K! Our daughter, Sahana Shah, has gained skills in the area of structured learning, behavioral learning, maths, arts and crafts. We are grateful and our heartfelt thanks to the Challenger school system, exceptional teachers, and courteous staff who care about every single kid on campus, to provide them the strongest foundation to sustain and withstand the challenges that will come along the way- be it within the Challenger school itself, or at another public school campus. Cheers - SHAH family

Our daughter has been with Challenger Avery Ranch over the last 5 years and we have had a very positive experience and my daughter has been having a very enriching experience.

Amazing school that focuses on academics, accountability & personal development for each child. Highly recommend Challenger!

We have two children at this school, a 3 year old that recently started and a 4 year old that has been there over a year and will start Kindergarten soon. It is phenomenal! It is not a daycare, but truly a school. Our girls are thriving. The older one can read complete sentences with one vowel and two vowel words. The younger one can name all the letters and their sounds. They have both produced impressive artwork and have some basic math and science knowledge. The other day my four year old corrected me and told me that the horns on a giraffe are actually called ossicones. She also was able to tell my friend from California that California is a state out west. There are high expectations for the kids but they learn how to succeed and increase their independence along the way. The teachers are very professional. The administrators work with the parents whose kids are having issues and I have heard that the talks are productive and they offer advice for how to work with the kids at home. If you dont want to hear constructive criticism or you think your 3 year old is still a baby this is not the school for you.The Cons:1. You have to pack a lunch every day and wash a sleeping bag once a week. I would prefer having food served at the school.2. The administrators are VERY structured and want things done a certain way. I understand their desire to set boundaries but I think it comes off a bit harsh at times.3. The uniforms are expensive e.g. ~$75 for kindergarten full uniform and ~$41 for preschool.All in all, I could not recommend this school more highly!

Very good school academic wise and keeps student engaged !Where improvement can be done is some relax policies when it comes to school uniform , arrival time etc

My son has attended challengers prek 4 for a year ,4 years ago and we loved it , he learned a lot in a year and school itself is very clean ,organized and teachers take time if the kid is lagging and lots of emphasis on independence which helped him.Now my daughter is in prek 3 program which she loves and is thriving both personally and academically ..Challenger is not for everyone as we have seen kids and parents stressed out about performing .I would strongly recommend this school and i always wonder how they teach kids to read and write in such a short span .

Round Rock ISD schools and other ISD schools in Austin area are really good academically and provide a complete and competitive environment. The personality and creativity of my child was taking a big hit at Challenger. Though they helped my kiddo with his reading. But kids can anyway pick reading skills sooner or later.Challenger is still running years behind with no room for parents input. Parent teachers conferences are one sided with a pig headed management.

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 didnt 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 cant have email like most schools), and we didnt 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 wasnt 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 childs social/emotional development, this may not be the right choice for you.Im a certified teacher (Ive 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.

I concur with lot of negative feedbackSomeone said, take feedback with positive note. Well Sir, yes, if it applies to Robot training...And train the robot with different tweaks.Pros: ofcourse kids learn. But at what cost? So much pressure on 4 year olds?With so much negative feedback on the director and the front desk lady...what action is the management taking on them. No one is joining them hence the 15% discount they are providing with?

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

I am so impressed with this school. The program is amazing and they are focused on education and self-development for your child.

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.

My mother taught kindergarten 32 years, my father was a Supt of Schools. My college aged son is a National Merit Student, and attended a school for the gifted, then Westlake public schools. We have two children in Challenger. It is without a doubt the best school program I have ever come across! We originally came to the school planning only to attend preschool. By the end of the year, our children were so far advanced in learning that there was no question that we were staying with Challenger.The teaching is done through a lot of games, songs, puppets, etc. and the children just thrive on it. After the first week, when we started, our children cried when they learned they couldnt also go on Saturday! This is our second year and they still absolutely LOVE going!The program is a strong phonics program for learning letter sounds and then to read. My mother would use nothing else to teach reading. The math program is also super strong. They have fun little songs and games for everything. They work with the children on handwriting and do all kinds of arts and crafts. One of the things I have been very impressed with is that they teach a lot of personal responsibility to the children. In a fun way, the children learn it is their own responsibility - (not Moms) to get dressed and ready for school in the morning, etc. When it was time for kindergarten, our children were already reading, doing addition, writing with the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen, and were LOVING every minute they were at school. I wish every child had the opportunity to get the education that our children are receiving and could gain the love of learning that our children are gaining.Now, before Thanksgiving in our K year, they are reading past a second grade level, doing addition and subtraction, learning all kinds of fun science, writing little creative stories, and just having a blast with the characters that the teacher comes up with and with the puppets she uses to teach with. The teachers are fantastic. I thought the one they had last year was so incredible and then the one that they have this year is so beyond belief that I just cannot believe we got such people two years in a row! Mr. Baker, has a wonderful ability to hire the best people available. He is such an incredible person too. What more could we ask for? I have the experience of a gifted and talented school and Westlake public schools to compare to. Challenger is the best!

One of the worst preschools I have ever visited - office staff is not compassionate. They do not support kids trying to fit into a new environment - 3 year old kids. They expect kids to be on board the first half of the first day at class visit. I do not recommend this preschool at all.

This is a great school for those who belong to the John Birch Society.

I agree with above comments, they complain on everything, not worth sending kids.Teachers are no different from a traditional daycare. Also students are not diverse like in a regular public school.

Daughter spent 1 year in Pre-K. For sure this school is not for everyone. If your child is not paying attention all the time, he/she will get frustrated very fast here. Combine that with the very rude support staff and some very obnoxious policies, you have a very well-hated school. The Pre-K teachers my daughter had were pretty good though.ps: My daughter had a slight headstart when she started K at Sommer Elemenrary, but after 6 months, most of her classmates caught up. This talk about challenger being so advanced is useless as kids learn everything at the right time anyway.

I can absolutely see why some folks dont like this school and thats because this school is not a fit for everyone. I personally think this is the best school I have put my daughter in and my daughter agrees vehemently (4 year old btw). She would never go back to any of her previous schools. So why is it so good?1. Learning acceleration without the kids even knowing it...Its all fun and games till your 3 year old toddler comes home and starts reading and writing full sentences...2. The best teachers and principal I have seen. Our kiddo went to a few montessoris and they were good, but this is a different level of good.3. Yes they do let you know if your kid is not doing well in any area (privately), but then I look at that very positively. I would rather hear their opinion. Whether I do something about it is my prerogative. I am guessing the folks who are saying it hurts dont like to sit in performance reviews at work either :) Just kidding...All I am saying is that how you take feedback depends on your outlook. Additioanlly it is not a session where they point out flaws alone + they provide great ideas on how to overcome these...I have really enjoyed these sessions honestly. They are open, two-way conversations.4. Expectations on independence are higher...Thats the tough one...Our daughter struggled with it to start, but it quickly became part of her routine and now she wants to be more in charge of her activities.5. Public speaking is introduced in a very low-pressure format and the kids really get good at this very early...in a fun environmentNegative - more expensive by a bit and uniforms after 4...But not that bad in my opinion.Have an open mind and let your toddler make the judgment (you might be surprised at what they say about the class). The results will speak for themselves a few months in....No - I am not affiliated with the school. I have one 4 year old there and plan to put my second there too when he is ready to go.

Great school, Great teachers and Great curriculum

School focuses on mindless bookish education. This school lacks diversity has got mostly Indian families. No one is lining up for this school anymore.

Great School !! Great Teachers !!