HD Cooke

[Anonymous]

I'd rather be whitish than a child of pallor.

ITA this thread smacks of weird Cooke bashing, race baiting, sock puppetry or just plain boredom from OP.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

[Anonymous]

I think the OP has some issues...

But as for the IB "bashing" the griping on these boards was intended to get back to 825 in every way possible. Can't say what exactly worked, but DCPS is paying for IB coordinators (.5) this year. That's huge for these schools since someone needs dedicated time to get off the application to the International Organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

There are plenty of young teachers in each of "the better elementary programs in DC," and most begin without Masters degrees. I don't know the situation at Cooke in particular, but I'd be surprised to find that the pool of teachers is substantially different from the one you'd find in a Ward 3 school.

[Anonymous]

This is such a strange thread. There was a lot of talk about Cooke becoming a viable neighborhood school. If it is not appealing to a cross section of the neighborhood, that is an issue for me, and should be for everyone who claims to care about improving DCPS in general and seeing schools like H.D. Cooke become serious options for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is such a strange thread. There was a lot of talk about Cooke becoming a viable neighborhood school. If it is not appealing to a cross section of the neighborhood, that is an issue for me, and should be for everyone who claims to care about improving DCPS in general and seeing schools like H.D. Cooke become serious options for all.

Agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

There are plenty of young teachers in each of "the better elementary programs in DC," and most begin without Masters degrees. I don't know the situation at Cooke in particular, but I'd be surprised to find that the pool of teachers is substantially different from the one you'd find in a Ward 3 school.

Actually, there are many Ward 3 schools that have experienced teachers (15+ years or a Masters degree).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

There are plenty of young teachers in each of "the better elementary programs in DC," and most begin without Masters degrees. I don't know the situation at Cooke in particular, but I'd be surprised to find that the pool of teachers is substantially different from the one you'd find in a Ward 3 school.

Actually, there are many Ward 3 schools that have experienced teachers (15+ years or a Masters degree).

These schools also have their share young teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

OP, what details did you give about Cooke beyond noting the racial composition of the school? was there a substantive discussion about the pros and cons of this school, with specifics, that i missed? or are we just talking about the fact that there are only a few white kids? if so, i don't see how much meaning we can make out of just that fact, particularly since this is the first year the school has been operating in the neighborhood in over five years. and the school has been open for two weeks. i just don't see how we have enough information to make any determinations about Cooke yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the OP. While I don't have any questions about an IB Program at Cooke it would be nice to have the caliber of experienced teachers available at some of the better elementary programs in DC.

I am not interested in "weird Cooke bashing" etc. I stand by my visit to the school, my personal observations, and my conversation with Ms. Black. If anyone here is an actual parent at Cooke and can in some useful way refute those observations, then your testimony would be of possible interest to potential incoming familes. To those of you trying to market the school, or in some way shame those of us who simply want something else for our children your dishonesty is a disservice.

Good luck with your school.

There are plenty of young teachers in each of "the better elementary programs in DC," and most begin without Masters degrees. I don't know the situation at Cooke in particular, but I'd be surprised to find that the pool of teachers is substantially different from the one you'd find in a Ward 3 school.

Actually, there are many Ward 3 schools that have experienced teachers (15+ years or a Masters degree).

These schools also have their share young teachers.

But they are not exclusively young/inexperienced teachers. There is a continuity of leadership and institutional knowledge which makes it possible to mentor young teachers. This is valuable "organizational culture" (to use a business buzzword) for the students and for the teachers - for the whole school community.

[Anonymous]

Is the Cooke faculty exclusively young, then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Now this starts to get weird.

16:48, not sure why you feel the need to conflate "white" and "middle-class" (in this of all cities!) but how do you possibly think you're helping?

And I don't think I even want to know what "whitish" is! I think it's one thing to want your children to have friends who look like them. I think it's something entirely different to put "whitish" forward as aspirational!

If you had reading comprehension skills you'd note that I did not conflate white with middle class... OP was saying neighborhood parents were not going to the school and I was contradicting that -- noting that the race of the child does not necessarily prove anything. And, by "whitish" I was merely noting that the OP could not have been telling the truth about there being no white children in the class b/c the kids I know certainly look "white" -- although certainly some of them have parents of more than one race, so I don't want to be the one to stick a label on them. I never said white or any other color was aspirational... it was OP who was implying that the school could not possibly be good b/c of the race of the children, not I. I'd like to see economic diversity at the school, which I think is what is starting to happen. (And, by that I really do mean diversity, I don't want all rich or middle class people at the school).

[Anonymous]

This discussion is weird, yet interesting to me. My child was the only white girl in her class for two years. The first year she was just bullied, but the second year she was bullied because of her skin color. Kids were threatening with physical harm and calling our kid "racist," not even knowing what the word meant. It gets worse the older the kids get. So yes, we left. What kind of parents would we be if we made her stay?

I won't name schools, so please don't bother asking...

[Anonymous]

I was the only "white" girl in my school (bargain parochial ) in DC twenty years ago. It was a step up (safety-wise)-from our local public school, but I still came home crying every day. I felt incredibly isolated and alone; it's not 'the fault' of the other kids. It was just too stark a ratio at the time, in a city that is still segregated by color, for there to be much 'bridging' due to my presence. The other kids devoted most of their efforts to trying to hook me up with the sole Latino in the school. When I took my son to our assigned public and saw only pictures of "African American heroes" etc on the halls of the school and was greeted by the receptionist who asked if I was "Spanish" (from Spain??) since I guess so few "white people" wandered in?????, I had a massive flashback and fled OOB. Sad-ish, but Zero regrets. This is not race-dependent. Rather, however my family (mixed race) identifies culturally (race, culture, language, SES) I would want my child to be in a school with at least a stab at that some of that mix....

[Anonymous]

Well put 2111! I had nearly the same experience but (but black in nearly all white county, and yes everyone tried to hook me up with the Venezuelan exchange student.). With a mixed family in Ward 1, we too are seeking an inclusive school and will happily wait to see how things develop at Cooke.

OP, sounds like you should just give up on getting whatever insights you think you could get from this forum.
And now that you've given the impression that Cooke isn't good enough for your child, I find it hard to believe anyone who has the views you seem to seek would want to drag themselves into this quagmire of innuendo. Clearly it is not the right place for you if you have such a visceral reaction to the first week of school.

I hope your child will be happy at AppleTree. I've heard great things about it.