At the end of 8th grade, about 300 students from Alexander County and Catawba County apply to Challenger Early College High School. From the pool of students that apply, one-hundred and fifty students are accepted with consideration to level of education attained by their parents, family socio-economic status, ethnicity population at national and state universities, single-parent home status, teacher recommendations for success in an accelerated program.
Learning programs
In an effort to fulfill the vision of Challenger Early College High School, multiple programs are incarnated into the learning environment to ensure that students are prepared for college, careers, and life in the 21st century.
is a growing education movement towards teaching students using with new and creative approaches rather than traditional ways. The framework for 21st Century Skills propose not only including core subjects, but also 21st century content, learning and thinking skills, ICT literacy, ad life skills. Challenger Early College High School incorporates this through Global Impact and Connections, which are required classes. In these classes, students learn about global awareness in additional to what has been termed the Four Cs of 21st century learning: critical-thinking, problem-solving, communication skills, collaboration skills. However, the core of 21st Century Skills is the assessment design. Students constantly write reflections and assess their own progress in their learning. Also, the school uses school-wide rubrics based on 21st Century Skills to ensure that students are working on these skills throughout their entire high school career.
As of August 2012, Challenger Early College High School adopted the Habits of Mind Program. The Habits of Mind include sixteen habits that students are expected to regularly be working on.
NCNSP Common Instructional Framework
Challenger Early College High School follows the NCNSP Common Instructional Framework, which uses skills such as collaborative group work, classroom talk, scaffolding, questioning, literacy groups, and the process of writing to learn.
Extracurricular activities
Performing arts
Challenger Early College High School offers multiple performing arts programs.
Besides the normal class requirements, Challenger Early College High School students are also expected to do fifty hours of community service. They are also expected to present an ePortfolio that showcases their high-school learning career and the skills they developed to a panel of community evaluators. As a parent-involvement program, parents are required to attend at least five meetings and volunteer four hours every year.
