Challenge School culture (neighborhood, high school, budget)

[Sedonagirl]

Our daughter was just accepted and I'd love to connect with some parents who are familiar with the current culture, either on this post or via private message. I have read through the two threads I've found here, the most recent from 2018. I know for awhile (2018 ish) there was a principal folks were unhappy with, and he's since moved on.

My concern is twofold:
1. style of education. I'm not particularly interested in her conquering a high school text in seventh grade (as one review noted). Do they teach the kids how to think? To ask questions? How project-based are they really?
2. community. Is it warm? Are the families tight?

TIA!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Sedonagirl

Our daughter was just accepted and I'd love to connect with some parents who are familiar with the current culture, either on this post or via private message. I have read through the two threads I've found here, the most recent from 2018. I know for awhile (2018 ish) there was a principal folks were unhappy with, and he's since moved on.

My concern is twofold:
1. style of education. I'm not particularly interested in her conquering a high school text in seventh grade (as one review noted). Do they teach the kids how to think? To ask questions? How project-based are they really?
2. community. Is it warm? Are the families tight?

TIA!

American schools need to do a lot more with teaching us HOW to think, i.e., critical thinking skills. I wasn't aware of it until about the age of 50 when the Army sent me to a management training school where they taught it. Every chance I get I post a link to this non-profit site that offers many resources.

[Moonwalkr]

The teachers there are amazing and will guide the students right. For a number of years recently the administrators dumbed down the school, for 'equity' sake and to make sure kids don't get way over their heads especially in math. When my kids started they had many 8th graders (pushed by parents) taking pre-calc when some of them were clearly not ready. The high achievers will achieve no matter where but from Challenge especially there were a good number of kids who ended up in Ivys (at least 1 every class eventually headed to Harvard - amazing considering the small size of each grade). I don't know the administration especially this past year.


It's difficult to teach kids how to think, much easier to have them regurgitate info back. That said they do have quite a bit of open-ended projects that do expand critical thinking. The mandatory Science Fair projects help push their boundaries, and there's a good speech and debate offering there and you will see a lot of kids eventually end up doing well beyond Challenge.


The community aspect is hit or miss, mainly because the kids come from all over the geography. Generally people will stick with their neighborhood groups for carpools, or activity groups like musicals group or math/chess groups. It can seem tight knit just because the school is small and everyone knows about each other.

[Sedonagirl]

Thank you Moonwalkr -- that's so helpful. It does give me comfort about the academics -- although I did hear that they have increased kindergarten class size from 18-24 due to budget cuts, which is unfortunate. With regard to community, I wish they'd have a zoom "parents' night" where I could meet the other families.