Challenger School – Round Rock, Round Rock | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

We started out spending two days a week in this preschool and 3 in another preschool. We have two girls in the school. A couple of months in, it became very clear that this was a school far superior than any others we have had contact with!I Let me start by saying my mother taught kindergarten for 32 years before she passed, my oldest child was a national merit student, and my father a supt of public schools. We know a little about academics and there is no question that the academics at Challenger are far far better than any other preschools that we have ever dealt with. They use lots of games, songs, and playing and the children come home happy and loved! They want to go! This is now our 3rd year at this school. We planned to attend preschool and then move to public school at kindergarten. However, we have been so impressed that we have stayed! One of our girls cried when she realized there was no school on Saturday! For all three years, they have been thrilled to go to school. The directors, Ryan Baker, and Margaret Zachary are some of the best leaders (principals) I have ever encountered. The girls love both of them and run to hug them. Yet they set the expectations extremely high. They put a lot of emphasis on encouraging the children’s responsibility. For example, they want them to carry their own backpacks, even at 3 years old. If a principal sees a parent carrying it, they will say to the child, “whose responsibility is it to carry that backpack?” These “small steps” end up making a huge difference and this type of attitude is encouraged in all kinds of ways. EVERYTHING is done in a positive and fun way. The kindergarten teacher used puppets and all kinds of characters to teach, and it seems they have a cute little song for everything! Lots of schools use little songs and games but this school really does it to an extreme and does it well. At one point my girls were laughing as they argued whether the teacher really had a twin sister that liked only irregular vowels or whether it was really just the teacher playing like she had a twin sister! I wanted to be in her class because it sounded like such fun! However on a more serious note, we have friends whose daughter attended Challenger for preschool. They then made the decision to put her in the local public school for kindergarten. Our elementary school is rated exemplary by the state. About half way through kindergarten, her daughter just wasn’t as happy about going to school anymore. By the end of year, they had decided to bring her back to Challenger for first grade. Challenger tested her 3 times, trying to allow her to come back. She had fallen so far behind that she was nowhere close to the Challenger students starting 1st, academically. This family now brings their youngest child to Challenger and drives the older one to public school. I have been told by other teachers in our family who teach in other states, that our girls are past a second grade level. I guess I can sum it up this way – Challenger teaches to the TOP of the class and they do everything they can to help every child do well and also enjoy it!
They even have an after school program where they help kids with homework and make sure everything is done before the children come home. Then when the kids get home, it is family time, rather than time spent struggling over homework. They don’t send a bunch of stuff home for the parents to have to do. Instead they do school work – in school. However, they teach to a higher level – and if a child is acting out and being a disruption, etc. they won’t be in Challenger long. It isn’t for everyone. They will not hold all the other students back for one student. I suspect that might have been the “rude” behavior spoken of in another review because I have just NEVER seen this from Margaret Zachary or Ryan Baker in the three years I have been around! The children adore both Ms Zachary and Mr. Baker and it is a big deal to the kids when he or Ms. Zachary personally tells them they did a great job! You just couldn’t ask for more!

Parents need to be aware and think critically before enrolling their children here.

Our experience with Challenger School, Round Rock, Joyce LN began on a high note. Our child’s Kindergarten year was fantastic, prompting us to stay for 1st grade. However, the subsequent year was a stark contrast.

To our dismay, the school hired an unqualified teacher for the 1st grade who, unsurprisingly, didn’t last more than two months. In fact this teacher was later seen working at Costco. That’s right…you heard me…went from teaching 1st grade for $1200/mo per student to working at Costco.

The replacement was an administrative staff member, again without the qualifications to teach this age group. These hiring decisions were baffling and concerning, to say the least and parent’s were kept in the dark the entire time, only finding out when we saw a new teacher in the classroom or when our kids told us.

What shocked us even more was the school’s decision at the end of the year. EVERY SINGLE STUDENT in the 1st grade was informed that they wouldn’t be recommended to proceed to 2nd grade. Mind you, this is after most schools had closed registration. The reasons given for each student were absurd. A classmate of my son’s wasn’t “independent” because a parent brought lunch every day. As for my son, we were told he wasn’t reading at an adequate level, which was baseless as he was comfortably reading 2nd grade chapter books.

The final straw was the Iowa test results (challengers standardized testing for evaluation). Our son scored in the high 90th percentile in all areas, further invalidating the school’s reasons for holding him back. It became clear to us that there was no intention of opening a 2nd-grade class at this campus. When we transferred him to a new private school, he placed in the top 5% of the group, NATIONWIDE.

The school’s solution? A vague promise of potential advancement after summer school. No doubt a last ditch attempt to milk more money from the families. Disappointed, we soon discovered we weren’t alone. Other parents had similar experiences and were equally disheartened.

Upon a recent encounter with a former employee, I was informed that the school continued its pattern of hiring unsuitable 1st-grade teachers and facing staff departures.

The underlying issues seem two-fold:

1. The school charges hefty fees (we paid over $1,200/month for 1st grade) but does not compensate its teachers adequately, leading to a disparity in quality.

2. The current administrators, Mrs. Caitlyn Bailey and Mr. Baker, seem out of their depth when it comes to hiring and administrative decisions. I feel confident that with them at the helm, the ship will continue it’s downward trajectory.

Challenger’s evident lack of commitment and integrity not only to the parents but to their own students has left us with no other option than this 1 star review.

ALL of the good reviews are from 3-5 years back. The school was in fact good back then. Not the case anymore.

And the fact that they don’t respond or try to address reviews here is indicative of an organization that is out of touch. Even mom and pop businesses make an effort to do this.