Challenger School – Middlefield

I would give it –5 if I could.
After sending my child for several months here. We had a difference of opinion on mis-​information from the school. As advised by Ms. Kamilah, we spoke with concerned person in an attempt to resolve.
Staff person was extremely rude and arrogant. Due to this, we voiced our opinion on a web portal (which was disclosed to Ms. Kamilah). Since we voiced our opinion on web portal, our child was expelled from the school with no prior notice.
We tried to contact school (Ms. Kamilah and Ms. Nina Bhave) and management to get a rational explanation or resolve the issue professionally and they have failed miserably by «NOT EVEN GIVING A REASON». School claims talking to management and management points to school.
It is their way or no way. I ran into a blog where parents explain similar behavior from the management back in ’08 …looks like nothing has changed.

My child studied at 3 campuses — Almaden, MiddleField and Sunnyvale. This order corresponds to the order of how I rated them. It also corresponds to our growing dissatisfaction with the Challenger School approach. It is decent for lower grades. They have a very good approach to teaching kids through songs, videos and play at the lower grades. I recommend them for the first 3 years perhaps.
After that the curriculum offers no special approaches to teach. For example, they use the same Saxon Math that my friends’ child uses at a public school in Texas. They just cramp larger amounts of homework and overload kids with repetitive tasks. This does not really develop how your child thinks and learns, it just stresses him or her out.
The school is behind the times on several levels. Lets start with a starchy shirt and tie for a uniform. Can it be something more comfortable when you see executives of multi million dollar companies in hoodies these days?
Music programs are awful. My child told me that he would be embarrassed to sing «I came from Alabama with banjo on my knee» during the spring program. I would be too. Given that the school mostly caters for immigrants, american folklore (and not the best part of it) is very out of place. What happened to Bach and Mozart?
Educational approaches are also behind the times (with the exception of the first three grades)
I think Barbara Baker who started the school had some good ideas for the first few grades. But she could not think any further, and no one running the school bothered to look else where for teaching approaches.
Overall, their approach progressively imposes more and more unneeded stress while offering less and less in terms of education as the child moves on to higher grades.

my daughter started their preschool at their youngest age of 2 yrs 9 mons. She was the youngest in class, very quite and shy, with little English exposure before school. I was very concerned especially everyone told me how academic/​strict Challenger is, but daddy feels we should set a good foundation for our kid so we give it a try.
Teachers in 3 yr old preschool are all amazing. We had Mr Jorge and Ms Lucy and they’re so patience, caring, and the same time make learning a fun experience. My daughter was very quite and lack of confidence in the first half yr, the teachers work on her personality and encourage her a lot, the 2^nd half yr she improves a lot and her phonics are strong.
Now she’s in the 4 yr old preschool, still with good teachers. Her teacher would tell me what areas we can work on at home, and they also find ways to improve her speaking skills. Everytime I sneaked into the classroom, i see the kids are happy and energetic to learn.
Overall the best things we noticed are, kids are disciplined, polite, eager to learn, they think learning is a fun thing not a burden, they have good schedules know when they should do what /​not do. All these together truly set a good fundamental for young children. I have to say my kid isn’t the brightest nor the smartest, but after the yrs with Challenger, everywhere we go, people make compliments about her.
I agree on the review below about the Cons, I wish they’ve more fun events/​class too. And I also wish they’ve classes teaching non-​academic things to increase creativity. There’re always things school won’t be perfect about, but at least the «fun and creativity» part is not hard to substitute on the weekends.

We were all set to send our child to public school until we found out there was a waiting list. We scrambled and got our son tested and in to Challenger.
Here are the pros:
1. Academics are rigorous for reading, phonics, math, some logic, they have science.
2. Classrooms are bright, clean
3. Our kindergarten teaches are pretty awesome. Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Mishra are both really caring, conscientious and motivated to work with the parents and partner on the progress of each child. I appreciate their detailed assessment of my child. They are caring, strict and experienced.
4. Cost wise, it’s competitive and there is an after-​school extended care for parents who both work.
5. They sing alot with what they learn, so music in that sense is incorporated BUT not super creative, for my standard of creativity.
6. They try to expose children to other cultures, global world view
7. They don’t ask for additional money for extra teachers or resources. The resources are typically there since you pay for it.
8. I do love the drop off queue where challenger helps your child out of the car, but I still walk my son in.
Cons:
1. Art is not strong, they reward more of in the lines type of art than anything free form.
2. Field trips are not the norm here and that is lacking.
3. Parent involvement is not needed (that could be either a plus or negative, depending on who you are).
4. Music, aside from singing, is not part of the curriculum that I can see (in terms of instruments).

My wife and I have been looking at preschools for my 2.5 yrs old. Challenger came into our radar somehow. We went to the Open House for the Palo Alto campus.
School grounds are well laid out, clean, open, and looks secure. There were lots of room, although there was hardly anyone there on the Sat morning open house. (For a while, we were the only ones there.)
I wasn’t too impressed with the teachers at the preschool room from the Open House. I didn’t get a strong impression of their training, and did not observe a lot of warmth toward my boy when we entered the room. 3 adult teachers there and no other visitors besides my wife, me, and the little boy. So while I am asking questions, I would imagine another teacher would start engaging, you know, the only kid in the room, instead of just standing around. I also had a long chat with the Principal, who’s an ex-​military officer. I didn’t get much in terms of the warm and fuzzy side of teaching a child, or individual attention. But I did get a sense of the discipline that my boy may see. Hmmph!
Nevertheless, I went back on a weekday open house so I can also observe an actual class. The class I attended impressed me. All the kids were well-​behaved and were working on pretty advanced stuff for a pre-​school. The two teachers there were engaging, seem to know what there were doing, and moved the class along efficiently without losing any of the kids.
I was pleasantly surprised by that and wanted to follow up with some questions to their administrator the following week by phone. I asked questions about teacher qualifications and wanted to make sure what impressed me during my visit would really be the environment in which my son will be in if we choose to put him at Challenger. None of my questions were readily addressed. It was like pulling teeth to get good info. I got a lot of «we don’t share that», and curt replies. I even got a «next question», when clearly my question was not answered. Maybe it was just a bad day for her. But it seems to me that understanding and addressing the parents concern is not something she was interested in or had a clue in. I was reminded of the many unconcerned, by the book, overly political, clueless bureaucrats that I have encountered in the government sector.
At this point, all I know is Challenger may or may not have good teachers, and their preschool may or may not be good. But for sure, they have administrators that will not have the best interest of my boy in heart, and will be a nightmare to deal with.
On with our search.

I have a child in elementary school and I could not be happier. The books they read are very challenging, but my son seems to really enjoy himself. He loves his teacher and she does conferences anytime I request. The office staff is always around to help with problems or concerns.

My kid in KG is reading! she is reading real well and she is having a great time. She is confidant and loves going to school. I like the safe enviroment they provide and the teachers are nice.