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What's one thing CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
485
High
DISTRICT 995 · STATE 796
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HOUSTON ISD·NCES 482364009609
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S
5601 W LOOP S, HOUSTON, TX 77081 · (713) 664-9712 · Harris County
GRADES 09–12HIGH11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL485 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
19.1:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.0:1 · STATE 15.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
81%
395 students
DISTRICT 84% · STATE 65%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
STAAR 2023-24 . % Meets Grade Level or AboveReading
94.0%
TX avg 51.8% . +11.0pp since 2020
Mathematics
70.0%
TX avg 42.0% . +36.0pp since 2020
What this means: On the STAAR, Texas's statewide test, about 94 of every 100 students at this school read at grade level and about 70 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Texas schools, those numbers are about 52 and 42. Reading scores are up about 11 points since 2020, while math scores are up about 36 points.
Source: STAAR. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of TX schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
88.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
38.3%
based on TX schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+49.9pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 88% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 38% typical for Texas schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 50 points, placing it in Texas's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
7-year change
SY 2017-18 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
485
+17 (+4%) vs 2017
Student : Teacher
19.1:1
was 24.6:1
% White
6%
was 7%
% Hispanic
80%
was 73%
% Black
9%
was 13%
% Asian
5%
was 5%
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
About CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S, a tight-knit high school in HOUSTON, Texas, part of HOUSTON ISD, serves 485 students, covering grades 9 through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 39% leaner than the state mean of about 796.
Within HOUSTON ISD, which oversees 273 schools and 176,727 students, CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S is one campus in the system.
On demographics, CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S shows that nearly all students (80%) are Hispanic. Other groups include 9% Black, 6% White, 5% Asian. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 44%.
Looking at school resources, On paper, CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S has 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.1:1. That figure is higher than the state norm's 15.1:1 average. About 81% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Harris County (around 70%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.
On a demographically-adjusted basis, CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S is in the OUTPERFORMING tier of the BeatsExpectations model, which fits a per-state line through proficiency and FRL share. Schools with this campus's poverty mix typically land near 38.3%; this one delivers 88.3%, a residual of +49.9 points.
Zooming out to the county, the surrounding county (Harris County) shows that median household income runs about $74,983, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 13%. In all, Harris County runs 1205 public schools (combined enrollment of about 886,911 students), of which CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S is one.
Nearest neighbor: PIN OAK MIDDLE, around 0.1 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S at 1st of 7; the average score across the group is 57.8%.
The campus sits in a downtown setting.
Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count increased 4%: 468 students in 2018 compared to 485 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share edged up from 73% to 80%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 24.6:1 in 2018 to 19.1:1 in 2025.
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Harris County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
4,838,303
Census ACS
Median income
$74,983
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
34%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
13%
Below federal line
Schools in county
1,205
886,911 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in HOUSTON ISD
- TEXAS CONNECTIONS ACADEMY AT HOUSTONCombined · 8,641 students
- BELLAIRE H SHigh · 3,216 students
- LAMAR H SHigh · 2,968 students
- WESTSIDE H SHigh · 2,729 students
- HEIGHTS H SHigh · 2,426 students
- HOUSTON MATH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY CENTERHigh · 2,396 students
Other schools in HOUSTON
- TEXAS CONNECTIONS ACADEMY AT HOUSTONCombined · 8,641 students
- NORTH SHORE SENIOR HIGHHigh · 4,284 students
- ELSIK H SHigh · 4,057 students
- SUMMER CREEK H SHigh · 3,972 students
- HASTINGS H SHigh · 3,786 students
- C E KING H SHigh · 3,716 students
Nearby schools
- PIN OAK MIDDLE0.1 mi · 1,253
- KOLTER EL0.6 mi · 771
- CUNNINGHAM EL0.7 mi · 562
- LIBERTY H S1.1 mi · 352
- MIDDLE COLLEGE H S AT HCC GULFTON1.1 mi · 72
- RODRIGUEZ EL1.2 mi · 917
Frequently asked questions
About CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H SHow large is CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S?
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S enrolls approximately 485 students in grades 09-12.
Is CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S an elementary, middle, or high school?
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S is a high school covering grades 09-12.
How many teachers does CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S have?
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S employs 25 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 19.1:1.
What is the student diversity at CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S?
Student demographics at CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S are roughly 6% White, 80% Hispanic, 9% Black, 5% Asian, 1% Two or more.
What district is CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S in?
CHALLENGE EARLY COLLEGE H S is part of HOUSTON ISD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.