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What do you wish you knew before starting at Challenger Middle School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
696
Middle
DISTRICT 704 · STATE 462
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ACADEMY DISTRICT 20·NCES 080192000001
Challenger Middle School
10215 LEXINGTON DRIVE, COLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80920 · (719) 234-3000 · El Paso County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYREGULAR SCHOOL696 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 93% of Colorado public middle schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats 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 Colorado public middle schools
Student : Teacher
17.1:1
41 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.8:1 · STATE 15.9:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
17%
117 students
DISTRICT 24% · STATE 50%
Community
6
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 238 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 220 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 238 | 34% |
Student demographics
52%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 53% · STATE 62% · 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
CMAS 2024-25 . % Met or Exceeded ExpectationsEnglish Language Arts
68.7%
CO avg 44.9% . -5.1pp since 2023
Math
59.8%
CO avg 36.1% . -0.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the CMAS, Colorado's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 60 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Colorado schools, those numbers are about 45 and 36. Reading and writing scores are down about 5 points since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
CMAS results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 68.7% | 59.8% |
| 2023-24 | 73.8% | 60.0% |
% Met or Exceeded Expectations, all students and all tested grades.
Source: CMAS. 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
65.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
56.5%
based on CO schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+8.7pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 65% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 57% typical for Colorado 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 Colorado'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 Middle School
Challenger Middle School's state test result (65.3% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Challenger Middle School this school | 696 | 16.8% | 65.3% |
| Discovery Canyon Campus Middle School COLORADO SPRINGS | 821 | 18.1% | 64.4% |
| Erie Middle School ERIE | 762 | 15.5% | 55.4% |
| Chinook Trail Middle School COLORADO SPRINGS | 1,075 | 16.9% | 53.5% |
| West Middle School GREENWOOD VILLAGE | 1,019 | 18.1% | 64.5% |
| Southern Hills Middle School BOULDER | 502 | 10.6% | 79.2% |
Matched among Colorado middle 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 Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Colorado | In El Paso County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 65.3% | #14 of 241 | #1 of 32 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 59.8% | #18 of 244 ▼ 4 | #2 of 33 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 68.7% | #25 of 246 ▼ 13 | #3 of 33 ▼ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 696 | #57 of 278 | #11 of 36 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.1:1 | #156 of 227 | #27 of 32 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 51.5% | #108 of 227 | #26 of 32 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 16.8% | #231 of 246 | #32 of 33 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -23.8% | #59 of 169 | #10 of 27 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
696
+36 (+5%) vs 2020
-15% since 1990-91, when it was 823
Student : Teacher
17.1:1
was 16.5:1
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 | 696 | 40.7 | 17.1:1 | 17% (117) |
| 2023-24 | 652 | 38.2 | 17.1:1 | 16% (107) |
| 2022-23 | 612 | 36.3 | 16.9:1 | 7% (42) |
| 2020-21 | 660 | 40 | 16.5:1 | 12% (77) |
| 2017-18 | 913 | 52 | 17.6:1 | 8% (76) |
| 2015-16 | 856 | 48 | 17.8:1 | 8% (70) |
| 2010-11 | 691 | 41 | 16.9:1 | 8% (57) |
| 2000-01 | 707 | 40 | 17.7:1 | 2% (14) |
| 1990-91 | 823 | 50 | 16.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Challenger Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 24% (913 to 696); teachers down 22% (52 to 40.7).
About Challenger Middle School
Challenger Middle School is a middle-grades school located in COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, in El Paso County. The school had 696 students in grades 6 through 8 in 2024-25. An average school in this group (middle schools in Colorado) has about 462 students.
Academy District 20 has 39 schools and 25,607 students, and Challenger Middle School is one of those schools.
White students account for 67% of enrollment at Challenger Middle School. Smaller groups are 15% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, 7% Asian, and 3% Black. For comparison, El Paso County is about 70% White. Challenger Middle School has a diversity index of 52%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Federal staffing data show 40.7 full-time-equivalent teachers at Challenger Middle School and a ratio of 17.1:1. The average ratio among middle schools in Colorado is 15.9:1, lower than at this school. The count of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch equals 17% of enrollment. The rate at public schools in El Paso County averages 42%, higher than here.
allk12 grades Challenger Middle School an A. The grade compares the school only with Colorado public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
In Colorado, Challenger Middle School is in the middle band of BeatsExpectations: 65.3% actual against a predicted 56.5%.
In El Paso County (population about 742,999), median household income is about $90,363, 42% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. A total of 245 public schools operate in El Paso County, serving about 114,356 students.
Mountain View Elementary School is the closest public school, about 0.1 miles away in a straight line. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. Challenger Middle School is 1st of 7 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
The school's federal locale classification is City: Large.
Enrollment was 660 in 2020-21 and 696 in 2024-25, a gain of 36 students.
Families, students, and staff can use this page to discuss science fairs, picture day, and bus routes at Challenger Middle School. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
El Paso County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
742,999
Census ACS
Median income
$90,363
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
42%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
245
114,356 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Academy District 20
- The Classical Academy CharterElementary · 1,909 students
- Pine Creek High SchoolHigh · 1,875 students
- Liberty High SchoolHigh · 1,526 students
- Air Academy High SchoolHigh · 1,380 students
- Rampart High SchoolHigh · 1,305 students
- Chinook Trail Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,075 students
Other schools in COLORADO SPRINGS
- The Classical Academy CharterElementary · 1,909 students
- Pine Creek High SchoolHigh · 1,875 students
- Doherty High SchoolHigh · 1,715 students
- Banning Lewis Ranch AcademyCombined · 1,697 students
- Liberty High SchoolHigh · 1,526 students
- Vista Ridge High SchoolHigh · 1,473 students
Other Challenger Middle schools
6 other US public schools in 5 states are named Challenger Middle. Challenger Middle School is the 4th largest of the 7.
- CHALLENGER MIDDLE SCHOOLCAPE CORAL, FL · 999 students
- Challenger MiddleSan Diego, CA · 960 students
- Challenger Middle SchoolGLENDALE, AZ · 839 students
- Challenger Middle SchoolTUCSON, AZ · 590 students
- Challenger Middle SchoolHuntsville, AL · 425 students
Nearby schools
- Mountain View Elementary School0.1 mi · 567
- Pine Creek High School0.8 mi · 1,875
- Mountain Ridge Middle School1.0 mi · 690
- Academy International Elementary School1.2 mi · 368
- Encompass Heights Elementary School1.3 mi · 583
- TCA College Pathways1.3 mi · 502
Frequently asked questions
About Challenger Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Challenger Middle School?
Challenger Middle School enrolls approximately 696 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Challenger Middle School serve?
Challenger Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many teachers does Challenger Middle School have?
Challenger Middle School employs 41 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.1:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Challenger Middle School?
At Challenger Middle School, the student body is approximately 67% White, 15% Hispanic, 3% Black, 7% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is Challenger Middle School public or private?
Challenger Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Academy District 20.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.