HD Cooke parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were previously at Cooke and left after being discouraged by the former principal, who basically discouraged parental involvement. We were there through first grade. There were three K teachers then, one of whom left when my kids were in 1st grade out of frustration with the principal. Ms. Kenney was a jewel--I hope she is still there. Ms. Watkins (I think she now has a new name?) was the other K teacher and she was very strict and stressed out most of the time. I believe she is still at the school but now teaches 4th grade or something, which is good. She was not very good at teaching Kindergartners, and the principal didn't give her (or any teacher) much support.

At HD Cooke, they used to take Kindergarten quite seriously, it being viewed as the first "academic" year. So there was a lot of pressure on learning to read and a lot of emphasis on academic achievement. I've heard anecdotally that this is the case in schools across the system, but it certainly made school less fun for my kids.

I have no idea whether any of the K teachers mentioned above are at the school anymore, nor any insight into the new principal's philosophy about Kindergarten. it might be a good thing to ask her.

There are no kindergarten teachers by those names at the school now, so either they changed their names or they have moved on. The new principal has been a lot better about providing support for teachers, particularly coordinating instruction all the classrooms at each grade level. It has been a priority for her, though raising test scores has also been a priority, so literacy and academics are a focus across grade levels at the school. I think that the IB curriculum makes it easier to turn academics into more fun inquiry-based experiences rather than worksheets and memorization.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a current or aspiring Cooke parent (at another EOTP school). Just an observation--it seems many EOTP schools are changing so rapidly that anecdotal experiences from more than a couple years ago have limited relevance. Probably not true for say, JKLMM schools, but seems to be the case for many EOTP schools due to gentrification, increased neighborhood buy-in, etc.

Not trying to silence anyone--I just implore people to state how long ago their experiences were when talking about such schools, so people have that context in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a current or aspiring Cooke parent (at another EOTP school). Just an observation--it seems many EOTP schools are changing so rapidly that anecdotal experiences from more than a couple years ago have limited relevance. Probably not true for say, JKLMM schools, but seems to be the case for many EOTP schools due to gentrification, increased neighborhood buy-in, etc.

Not trying to silence anyone--I just implore people to state how long ago their experiences were when talking about such schools, so people have that context in mind.

+1.

Also recognizing that shifting school demographics mean that asking questions about the upper grades may not yield any answers on this forum. Prior to a couple years ago, prevailing wisdom was that when your kids get school age, you move WOTP or to the suburbs or send them to private school. DCPS was only an option for families who didn't have other options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a current or aspiring Cooke parent (at another EOTP school). Just an observation--it seems many EOTP schools are changing so rapidly that anecdotal experiences from more than a couple years ago have limited relevance. Probably not true for say, JKLMM schools, but seems to be the case for many EOTP schools due to gentrification, increased neighborhood buy-in, etc.

Not trying to silence anyone--I just implore people to state how long ago their experiences were when talking about such schools, so people have that context in mind.

Agreed, which is why I caveated my remarks to say mine were under the old principal. My experience is 1.75 years ago, FWIW

[Anonymous]

Bump. Any upper grade parents around to comment. I'd love to hear another perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump. Any upper grade parents around to comment. I'd love to hear another perspective.

PP, if you would like to speak to upper grade parents, send an email to [e-mail] and we'll try to connect you directly with them. I have not seen any current parents with kids older than PK4 on this board. There is at least one former parent whose children are older, but she cannot speak to the upper grades this year.