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What's one thing Challenger Elementary School gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
491
Elementary
DISTRICT 475 · STATE 480
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HUNTSVILLE CITY·NCES 010180001773
Challenger Elementary School
13555 Chaney Thompson Rd, Huntsville, AL 35803 · (256) 428-7060 · Madison County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL491 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 32% of Alabama public elementary schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Alabama public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
17.5:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.0:1 · STATE 17.0:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
32%
156 students
DISTRICT 50% · STATE 58%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 41 | 8% |
| Kindergarten | 72 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 67 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 71 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 84 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 74 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 82 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 12% smaller than its 5th grade class (82).
Student demographics
67%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 69% · STATE 63% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ACAP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
66.7%
AL avg 52.7%
Math
40.2%
AL avg 31.8%
What this means: On the ACAP, Alabama's statewide test, about 67 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 40 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Alabama schools, those numbers are about 53 and 32.
Source: ACAP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
52.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
60.9%
based on AL schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 53% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 61% typical for Alabama schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Alabama's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Challenger Elementary School
Challenger Elementary School's state test result (52.6% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Challenger Elementary School this school | 491 | 31.8% | 52.6% |
| Mt Carmel Elementary School Huntsville | 638 | 32.4% | 67.7% |
| Lakewood Elementary School Phenix City | 455 | 35.6% | 68.0% |
| Legacy Elementary School Madison | 594 | 29.3% | 70.1% |
| Weatherly Heights Elementary School Huntsville | 472 | 28.6% | 59.7% |
| Jones Valley Elementary School Huntsville | 471 | 26.8% | 68.9% |
Matched among Alabama elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Challenger Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Alabama | In Madison County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 52.6% | #276 of 626 | #27 of 48 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 40.2% | #307 of 626 | #29 of 48 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 66.7% | #277 of 626 | #27 of 48 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 491 | #314 of 709 | #27 of 50 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.5:1 | #404 of 655 | #34 of 49 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 66.6% | #58 of 658 | #8 of 49 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 31.8% | #633 of 696 | #33 of 49 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -3.7% | #309 of 364 | #26 of 29 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
491
+23 (+5%) vs 2020
-35% since 1990-91, when it was 755
Student : Teacher
17.5:1
was 14.2:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 491 | 28 | 17.5:1 | 32% (156) |
| 2023-24 | 499 | 28 | 17.8:1 | 44% (222) |
| 2022-23 | 503 | 28.5 | 17.6:1 | 43% (216) |
| 2020-21 | 468 | 33 | 14.2:1 | 30% (140) |
| 2017-18 | 510 | 29 | 17.6:1 | 35% (177) |
| 2015-16 | 504 | 31 | 16.3:1 | 41% (205) |
| 2010-11 | 522 | 34 | 15.3:1 | 29% (151) |
| 2000-01 | 666 | 45 | 14.8:1 | 14% (92) |
| 1990-91 | 755 | 36 | 21.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Challenger Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 4% (510 to 491); teachers down 3% (29 to 28).
About Challenger Elementary School
Challenger Elementary School is classified as an elementary school. It is located in Huntsville, Alabama. Enrollment in 2024-25 was 491 students in pre-K through 5.
The district, Huntsville City, operates 44 schools serving 24,222 students.
At Challenger Elementary School, the largest share of students is White, at 49%. The remaining shares are 23% Black, 19% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, and 2% Asian. Madison County as a whole is about 63% White, so the school's share is lower. Pick two students at random and there is a 67% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Dividing enrollment by its 28 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 17.5:1. That is close to the 17.0:1 average for elementary schools in Alabama. Eligible students account for 32% of enrollment in the free or reduced-price lunch program. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Madison County is 41%.
allk12 grades Challenger Elementary School a C. The grade compares the school only with Alabama public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Challenger Elementary School scores 52.6% on state tests, averaged across results. The predicted figure, based on its student poverty level, is 60.9%.
Across Madison County, the median household income is $86,499, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 46% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. Madison County is home to 89 public schools and about 55,800 public school students.
The school nearest to Challenger Elementary School is Challenger Middle School, at a distance of less than a tenth of a mile. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. On state test proficiency, Challenger Elementary School ranks 7th in a group of 9 nearby schools.
Federal data place Challenger Elementary School in the City: Mid-size locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Over 4 years, Challenger Elementary School's enrollment grew 5%, to 491. The student-to-teacher ratio went up from 14.2:1 to 17.5:1.
Threads on this page can be about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Madison County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
405,718
Census ACS
Median income
$86,499
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
89
55,800 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Huntsville City
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- GoldsmithSchiffman ElementaryElementary · 935 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Other schools in Huntsville
- Virgil Grissom High SchoolHigh · 1,847 students
- Huntsville High SchoolHigh · 1,807 students
- Providence ElementaryElementary · 1,152 students
- Monrovia Middle SchoolMiddle · 988 students
- Columbia High SchoolHigh · 916 students
- Lee High SchoolHigh · 877 students
Other Challenger Elementary schools
8 other US public schools in 7 states are named Challenger Elementary. Challenger Elementary School is the 5th largest of the 9.
- CHALLENGER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLTAMARAC, FL · 830 students
- CHALLENGER ELEMENTARYTHIEF RIVER FALLS, MN · 727 students
- Challenger ElementaryEverett, WA · 658 students
- Challenger Elementary SchoolPEARLAND, TX · 614 students
- Challenger Elementary SchoolHOWELL, MI · 465 students
Nearby schools
- Challenger Middle School0.0 mi · 425
- Mountain Gap Elementary School1.0 mi · 341
- Mountain Gap Middle School1.0 mi · 366
- Farley Elementary School1.3 mi · 334
- Weatherly Heights Elementary School2.2 mi · 472
- Virgil Grissom High School2.7 mi · 1,847
Frequently asked questions
About Challenger Elementary SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Challenger Elementary School?
Challenger Elementary School enrolls approximately 491 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Challenger Elementary School serve?
Challenger Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Challenger Elementary School?
Approximately 17.5:1 students per teacher at Challenger Elementary School.
How diverse is Challenger Elementary School?
Challenger Elementary School reports a student body of 49% White, 19% Hispanic, 23% Black, 2% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Who oversees Challenger Elementary School?
Challenger Elementary School is overseen by Huntsville City in Madison County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.