The purpose of this study is to evaluate the scientific production and performance of the concept 'challenging schools' from 2000 to today through a bibliometric analysis complemented by scientific mapping. The study resorted to different processes to quantify, analyse, evaluate, and estimate the scientific output by means of specific software such as "SciMAT, Analyze Results," and "Creation Citation Report." The concept was run through 88 scientific publications dating from 2000 to 2022 extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) citation database. The findings suggest that the evolution of the study of the schools facing challenging circumstances is constant and continuous and has followed a stable trend. The results also reflect the related themes that are of greatest scientific interest throughout each of the decades, climate being relevant in each of the periods. Furthermore, the study reveals the thematic evolution, the birth of new motor themes, as well as others lacking in depth analyses that merit further exhaustive investigation. This study thus paves the way for future research on the subject.