Challenger School - Round Rock

Reviews

• JB

  Just Browsing

  Nov 18, 2025
  1.0
  We were told that our child was one of the brightest in the campus academically, but was constantly punished for not conforming to the school rules and for being curious, confident and logical. This school is completely incapable of handling a child with curiosity and independent thinking.
• PG

  Pradeep G

  Dec 23, 2024
  1.0
  My kid attended Pre-K (2023-2024) and Summer Bridge Program 2024. - Education and Growth of my kid: Good: probably 4 out of 5. We noticed she did great job on Phonetics study and early reading. - Communication: Pretty bad 1/5: Multiple instances not just once. Communication and Opportunities for School to improve: 1. Regarding Summer Routine and My kid participation: Challenger have two events for Pre-K kids one in Winter and another in almost end of school year in May. They do practice almost 1-2 hours with my understanding every day for probably 1-2 months before the event. During March I let them know that my Kid will not be performing since it falls on the day I am taking International trip. My kid told me that teachers make her sit on the side watching her friends practice, which was absurd given my kid almost staying till the week of performance I understand she is not participating but making her sitting idle didn't make sense. I tried to discuss this concern with the teachers and they just made it petty complain and moved on. Also on the week of performance I got to know that their display day moved ahead and fell into pre-vacation. This teachers knew before and didn't bothered to tell me or my kid, Vice principal apologized for this mis communication but this is great example on how things gets communicated in this school. 2. Re-enrolment Chaos: I enrolled my kid to charter school near by for Kindergarten, slowly we realized charter school got good all around development but lacking in academics. So thought to Talk to Challenger Round Rock Admin about re-enrollment. Scheduled a call and spoke with their Campus Manager. To my surprise Manager told me that my Kid got a big gap when she was attending Summer Program 2024 so they are worried about her re-application. WOW: This kind of surprised me: There was no mention of this when my kid attending Summer Program I mean I understand as a parent I need to schedule Parent Teacher Conf. but considering on how things put infront of me I felt it was serious gap so I wondered why I was kept in dark all Summer Program. My expectation as a parent when I am paying good Tuition to school they have to be accountable on communicating progress and working with me for Childs success. As many other reviews I feel the same: they are trying to re-enroll my kid pre-K. I think this is serious that this Private School have to learn that Kids growth is not just Kid's problem, both Teachers and Parents have to be held accountable and retrospect whats not going well during the school year than coming to the end and disqualifying kids to bump up their re-enrollment.
• KC

  Karin Chopin

  Apr 10, 2018
  5.0
  Both of my children have attended or are attending Challenger school. We love the curriculum as well as the expectations of the children. Everyone we have worked with over the last 4 years has been kind, professional and competent. Our kids love going daily and we see them enjoying learning. They seem to be learning much more than average kids their age in this environment but not just in math and reading. Their ability to communicate and take personal responsibility has been the most appreciated and unexpected result of this amazing school.
• RS

  Regina S

  Dec 2, 2015
  5.0
  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!

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