I'm a former student writing this review, so this is probably the most accurate rating anyone could…read moregive this school. This is going to be a pretty long review, so there's a TLDR at the bottom. Academically, Challenger is great. The curriculum puts students on the same courses as TAG kids in public school, but there is even more homework, which teaches kids discipline, responsibility, and time management at an early age. However, it's important to point out that the homework is not too much, and I found that I was always able to complete it and earn good grades without too much stress. From kindergarten through fifth grade, I really enjoyed the school since I maintained good marks, and the small class sizes made it easier to make friends. I was also a really well-behaved student, and always found my good behavior rewarded. However, in sixth grade, my parents decided to send me to public school so I would be ready for high school. Despite being in TAG all subjects, my learning pace was slower than it had been in Challenger, so I re-enrolled to Challenger for seventh grade, and this is when everything changed. There were a lot of new students, and let's just say they didn't find my good behavior too cool. There was a new hierarchy that I soon became aware of, and I was around the bottom of it. That year, my friend group was bullied quite a lot, but what amazed me is that the teachers did literally nothing about it. I also noticed that the front office was very close to the popular kids and basically didn't pay attention to anyone else, so it felt very isolating. I couldn't report the bullying even if I wanted to. In eighth grade, I wasn't ready to go through that again, so I changed my entire personality. I guess I was now more easy to talk to and funny, so my bullies became some of my closest friends. I even dated one of them. But even though I won the students over, the front office, who didn't see our class every day, thought I was still unpopular, and this would become important later. Since changing my personality, I was more flexible with following the rules, and one of them was that you can't share food. Basically no one in middle school cared about this, and sharing food was so common that many teachers saw it and didn't make a scene since they knew we could handle our allergies by ourselves at that age. However, at some point, a front office member caught me with the same food as someone else, who was a kid who had always been popular. When he was asked whether the class had been sharing food, he immediately told the truth, but when I was asked, I lied to protect my friend. In hindsight, lying is always wrong, and I shouldn't have done it; instead, I should have admitted it but not said anything about the person who gave me the food. However, since I lied, I had a failing comportment grade, which prevented me from getting the Academic Excellence award even though my grades were literally 96 and above for every subject. I also got lunch detention for two months, which was really severe. The other kid, in contrast, got away absolutely scot-free. This really irked me because previously, there was another problem with sharing food, and the offenders received lunch detention for 2 weeks, so that should have been the punishment for the other kid. However, the front office members, in my opinion, tend to act like teenagers in this regard, since they show so much favoritism that it is blatantly obvious. They basically try to suck up to the popular kids, which is the opposite of how it should be, and I think it's really messed up. Another consequence for this one negative choice that I made was that I didn't get a scholarship despite my extremely high testing. Just because of my comportment grade, which was affected by one mistake, I missed out on a lot of money. I think they were too harsh with the punishment for sharing food because in all the years except eighth grade, I tried my hardest to be the best-behaved student in the class. I had to change because otherwise, I would be suffocating in bullying for the rest of my Challenger career. And even in eighth grade, I was still one of the better-behaved kids in the class, but I guess my history and everything I put into that school didn't matter to the management. I know I've claimed that teachers were bystanders to bullying, and the front office was just fueling the flames, but this isn't true for every single individual. Some teachers were terrific, and the same goes with some of the front office staff, but the damage that school gave me is still done. What you should take away from my story is this: Challenger will be great to put your kid ahead of the competition and prepare them for high school. However, unless your kid has a gift for sucking up, they may not have the most positive experience there. (The above paragraph is the TLDR btw).

Preschool program under Ms.Erica was top Notch and that deserves a 5 stars…read more. But the kindergarten program did not feel like the supportive, child-centered environment we hoped for. Although the academics are strong, our experience left us concerned about the emphasis placed on compliance and performance over children's emotional comfort and confidence. And honestly kids can learn this phonics and math that they teach anywhere. It is not a fool proof method especially phonics! The teacher here yells at kids and intimidates them and are super rude to kids. The Principal/ director takes no responsibility of anything from her side and responds in one liner when questioned about any concerns . No transparency and they pick on the kid who complains and makes it hard for them. The school trains the kids as robots and machines and not human!

This is a good school, principal Yilmaz is super nice . Most teachers are helpful, the environment…read moreis small and safe. It is a good stem school.

My kid went missing and because of t was after 4pm some of the staff did not care and walked off…read morewhen I asked for help. Thankfully the security guard was as nice and also the principal was as very helpful. The school took his phone and did not return it to him and I could not get in touch with him. This school is great for academics but the some of staff could care less about the students. And the location and the layout of the school is horrible. It was a great location for a local business but not a school. The parking is horrible and the pick up line is even worse and it's next to an apartment complex and a car dealership not ideal for a school hut other than that the school is okay.

I am not sending my kids to the school again it was so bad he got punched in the face big mistakeread more

Yay! I'm #1! I love…read morethis school. My son loves going to school and participates in the Y afterschool. I have been extremely satisfied. The teachers are great and I always feel like my son is safe. What more can you ask from in a school. Oh! And he has learned so much! My 1st grader can spell words like Shriek (I can't even spell that!)

Great school. Run at university level classes. Not a good school for the below average student…read more Expect a lot of homework.teChers are phenomenal and opportunities are amazing .total population of students is less than 400 .small classes .a lot of resources and teacher help

As a current senior at savio is can say the atmosphere is definitely toxic. But that's not the full…read morestory. I've seen all the reviews here and can tell what they're talking about, and frankly, they're very exaggerated. Someone talked about underrepresentation which i agree with, but has nothing to do with race or origin. I feel severely under represented as a student, but this is because there's a group of popular kids with white and mexican kids that dominate this, which is not related to race. I also saw the review talking about the two administration peoples,and i agree to a WAY lesser extent: They may have been incompetent, but in now way did they severely affect the savio environment in such a way. I truly know one of the people they're taking about and they tried their best, even if students didn't feel it worked. About what's actually "toxic", are the students themselves. The teachers enable the popular kids and their spoiled entitlement and lack of spiritual education in which these kids blatantly gossip and disrespect other nice teachers. They shun those who are themselves and like joking around when they very well do the same. About savio's work load, it's very difficult, especially junior year, but after all no one is forcing us to pay to o there every year, it's college preparatory after all. I do agree that savio underpays their staff, but they're not exactly government funded, when staff sign up, they know their salary. Lastly, for my real opinion on Savio: It's not very catholic, and lacks a spiritual aspect. Go to a cheaper catholic school like San Juan Diego and find a more friendly student environment.

After much searching, interviewing and site visits we have enrolled our daughter in this preschool…read moreand are quite happy with our decision. Our daughter was previously at an all play based preschool where she would have very little structure. We wanted to find a school that not only promoted more learning but also promoted learning through play, dance and song. We found that Challenger offered that. We have always shared creative learning with our child and wanted to make sure that she had all options available to her. There are some comments on here about diversity, but this is one of the most diverse Challenger campuses. Also, Challenger is now offering a referral tuition discount program for 2017-2018 year. If you are interested in this program, please contact me so we can both have the two-way 15% referral tuition discount every month throughout the academic year! If you use me as a referral for the 2017-2018 year. Message me for details.

The school is great. Love their program. On the 1st day of school no kid was crying in my son's…read moreclass ! It was the 1st day for a lot of kids but the teachers were amazing about keeping them calm. Ms. Erika is very sweet and always willing to work with you.

My daughter is in 2nd grade this year, before attending this school she loved going to school…read more Every morning she'd wake up happy and excited, now its a huge fight to make her go to school. First off her teacher seems to be completely oblivious to the way her students treat each other, we've had multiple problems with my daughter being bullied. The teacher does absolutely nothing to solve the problem, if anything she just makes it worse. Her teacher has been emotionally abusive to my daughter yelling at her, and even ripping her art in half intentionally when she didn't comply with her demands. When I spoke to the principal about it she told me basically sorry there's nothing I can do, and refused to switch her teachers. My happy little girl who loved school now hates it. Thankfully we decided to move and she's been transfered back to her original school where they actually genuinely care about their students emotional well-being and don't tolerate students or teachers bullying students. The nurse is also extremely rude. When my daughter has gone to see the nurse she makes it very clear that she has better things to do then to deal with my child and wouldn't even let her call me...Forest North Elementary is the most horrible school I've ever dealt with and im thankful my daughter will no longer have to be treated poorly by these so called educators

Front staff is rude everyone is honestly extremely rude since day one and then get mad at me for…read morebeing mad when they ignore my daughter and didnt feed her when she eats lunch there this was maybe day 3 of school and they chose not to fed her because they thought she was lying. It's unacceptable the weather is extremely hot this school is from 7:15-3:10 and she was there crying because they didn't feed her after that they made excuses now since then everything has been downhill I'm sure they don't look forward to seeing me in the morning because I will stand up for my daughter. Every single morning it's something and the staff is rude how am I supposed to trust them with my daughter if they can't even treat the parents with basic respect. It's absurd I believe one day 2 it was the principal I was speaking to and she can care less about our problems I can't wait to leave this school in the upcoming weeks due to moving but till then I have to deal with the rudeness of every single person there I have yet to meet someone who doesn't have attitude immediately when asked a simple question because again ITS OUR FIRST YEAR AND YET THEY GET MAD FOR QUESTIONING!! I very much don't recommend this school to anyway I shouldn't have to tape a sign on my daughters bag reminding them to fed my child or to NOT IGNORE HER but yet here I am doing so to insure my daughter is simply fed.

summit is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you…read moreothers have to rate the school more fairly; the front staff is only a bit of the wonderful teachers and other staff! the front staff sucks, but everything else is great!!! :)

it is soooo good my kid have learned a lot from the school and also he said the school makes him…read morereally ha and the teachers are so nice to him

Reed Elementary is a truly special school…read more We discovered the school because of the Gómez & Gómez Dual Language program and the more we learned about Reed the more we liked it. The campus is well-maintained and beautiful (with a yard full of bluebonnets!) The student population is wonderfully diverse. The talented and caring staff and leadership are the best anyone could hope for. We moved and built a new home specifically to be in the zone for Reed. Our daughter's kindergarten experience was absolutely awesome, and the teachers made an incredibly good first impression on our entire family. We were all amazed by how quickly the kids picked up a second language and were able to jump right into conversation with others at the playground. We had unexpectedly opened up our daughter to a new world of cultural experiences, and more importantly, great friends. This early experience set the stage for many good things to follow. The other subjects are taught just as effectively as Language Arts. Math and Science are delivered in an interesting and fast-paced way that really clicks with our kid and others in her classes. "Specials" are a big highlight. The selection of books in the library, both English and Spanish, is great! The musical and dance opportunities in Performing Arts are amazing, from concerts throughout the school year to unique events like a special performance at the State Capital. The fundamentals that the kids are taught in Visual Arts provide an excellent foundation for future growth in drawing, painting, and understanding of color. The art projects our daughter brings home, and more importantly, creates completely on her own while AT home using her new and improving skills, are wildly impressive. Physical Education is also a favorite, with exposure to activities and sports that would have blown me away as a kid. And Running Club!! Everyone LOVES Running Club! After struggling with reading, our daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia. The school provides special accommodations for these challenges. The amazing 504 team has been able to keep her learning along with her classmates and actually enjoying reading and writing, something that never happened for me as a kid. Our child's education is our top priority, and time and time again, we are convinced that we made the right choice with Reed Elementary.

We began IST as one of the founding families this past fall, its first year. Words cannot express…read morethe camaraderie, energy and the love and warmth of the staff. My daughter is always so positively challenged and is exposed to so many different perspectives and cultures of the world. This is something very important to us as my husband is a 1st generation Cuban-American and I am 7th generation Central Texan.. To have the opportunity for her to attend is truly a perfect example of the American dream. Having the opportunity to provide and build this sacred space for our children is a true gift. As parents, we are all deeply committed as a whole. It simply does not get any better than this. To be a part of such a complete, quality IB program is something we never realized we could achieve for our daughter. But now, I could never imagine our lives any other way. The student body is collectively taught to respect and genuinely care for others. They are taught to honor and recognize each others' difference AND celebrate them. Each family and each child, each teacher and each staff member bring such amazing experience and life lessons to share to the table in this environment. You see it more and more with each visit. It just continues to grow stronger. The positive energy is palatable when you walk in the door to see the children and staff interacting. It is through building such strong foundations, socially and academically, that in just its first year, we are running strong with SO much progress. Such exponential growth has taken place at just at the turn of our 1st year anniversary this July. Again, no matter how much pride I try to convey, I cannot do it all justice. You must come see it for yourself to see where your family may become a part of such a vital, life-changing community. We hope to see you there! Blessed be.

$20k per year tuition fees with super average curriculum execution…read more As a parent expect to receive multiple extremely long winded emails every day requesting you make/bring something to school - I would count myself as very organized yet found it extremely difficult to keep up with all their requests Unusually high Headmaster attrition - we had 3 different Headmasters in 1 year - not a great sign Worst part of the experience was when we ended up needing to move a new town outside Austin and a new school - when I cancelled (2 months before the beginning of the school year) - IST insisted on not only keeping my deposit (I absolutely understand this) but the tuition fees I paid in advance. The school year wasn't even close to starting! For a not-for-profit this is a fairly shameful business practice and a terrible moral example to our children. After I explained my position to the (at least right now current) head Brian he looked me in the eye and agreed the tuition fee refund I was asking for was fair - to which he then sent an email days later rescinding this and denying me a refund. Shady beyond belief. For these reasons I would not recommend sending your child to IST.

I am extremely happy and impressed with the education, care and level of integrity that Harmony…read more has provided for both of my children. We enrolled our 2nd and 4th grader after the pandemic in 2021 because our local public elementary school was having an extremely hard time keeping up with educational requirements and classroom management was very challenging for them. When we toured Harmony, it was a stark contrast. The teachers appeared HAPPY and professional. The campus was very clean and spacious. Since joining, it has been a day and night comparison. My second grader went from an unruly classroom in the public school system to learning vocabulary words like "imaginary". His teacher was excellent and operated on very high standards. Since we joined later in the school year, once my daughter graduated to the fifth grade and was having a hard time transitioning (missed her friends), her teachers picked up on it and recommended sessions from the onsite counselor - meeting her emotional needs. Additionally, my fifth grader was having a hard time in math, so her teacher started tutorials after school for those that needed a helping hand. That is going above and beyond. When my son was in third grade and having behavior issues in one of his classes, his teacher was very communicative and we were able to turn it around. I was very surprised to read the negative comments as that has not been our experience at all - and we have put them to the test in addressing fellow student conduct, behavior issues, and academic challenges. I feel they met the mark every time in solution based problem solving. The response time for any concerns is very quick and handled in a professional and efficient way. I also love the diverse community with parents who all share the vision of "something better" for their child. The drop-off/pick-up line does take time, but I am very happy to hear that they are working on a solution. I am a very proud parent of Harmony with the level of integrity, teacher commitment and communications. I have become friends with many other parents and I know they are too. Unfortunately people complain more than praise.

Harmony is the school with the best marketing in town. However, the reality is completely…read moreopposite. Our biggest issue was the classroom size, they don't adhere to the state mandated maximum so they are large and unsafe environment in general. Academically; You can check their curriculum if you request it. It's ok in comparison with most normal public schools but definitely not worthy for us, with the fact mentioned above. Lots of focus on the state mandate tests in order to improve scores to collect more money. Which is also why they have so many kids in each classroom. Our opinion is that the success of the kids at Harmony relies on the parents involvement as the homework are repetitive and are focused on a just a memorize game for the tests not learning. Our experience on first grade was that the kids aren't allowed to ask questions maybe with the fact of the overpopulated classroom. It's definitely not an example of a quality education in our eyes. Also, in two years never experienced the "Stem" program which was the reason we chose the school.