H.D. Cooke

[Anonymous]

I would love any feedback people can provide about H.D. Cooke. It's our in-boundary school, and we were a little skeptical from the test scores, but we were really impressed with the early-childhood program when we went this morning to the open house. The principal seems great; the building is brand new and gorgeous; it has an amazing library and it seems some really good resources. The early childhood program is completely separated from the rest of the school. I am pretty sure we are going to apply, but of course the question is always where to put it relative to other schools, so feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

The reputation of HD Cooke to date has been of some disappointment among parents who've put their kids in at the early years. The school building has been nice but the school body has suffered by being drawn from only a limited part of the community willing to put up with the ins-and-outs of the school construction that left them without their own building for a while.

That said I am someone who has a kid at a school with a great early childhood program that is growing otherwise. At some point, change has to come and a good principal and a good early childhood program is a great place to start.

[Anonymous]

Do not do it. Went downhill after Barrington left.

[Anonymous]

I'm not so interested in the reputation--interested in hearing the experiences of people who go there. The principal seemed very engaged and understanding that people tend to stay for the lower grades, leave in the upper grades. She talked a lot about the IB curriculum, which allows for differentiated instruction in all areas, including math, which I understand is not very strong at some other schools. I'm realistic--we'd rather have a school that we could stay at longer--but if this is our only choice, then I'd like to know how people who have been in the PS/PK/K program have felt about the program. I also think that there are a lot of benefits of going to a neighborhood school, and since most of the charters are on the other side of town, I'm weighing that, since we would be able to move in-boundary for a more desirable school for later grades if we wanted.

[Anonymous]

I had a poor experience there. Walked into a class, and kids were watching Norbit. Later that day, teacher instructed students to reenact scenes from the movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a poor experience there. Walked into a class, and kids were watching Norbit. Later that day, teacher instructed students to reenact scenes from the movie.

Ugh, thanks for sharing. What grade was this? And was this recent, or a while back?

[Anonymous]

Second grade

[Anonymous]

I told the principal about the incident; however she commented that showing Norbit was appropriate because it is a good movie about being nice. I withdrew my daughter.

[Anonymous]

And that is the problem with Cooke-- the principal probably does need to show Norbit to her 2nd graders because a lot of them aren't getting the "home training" necessary either because the parents don't care or are working 2 jobs (Cooke has a high population of non-English speaking parents). Cooke is focused on meeting the needs of its FARMs population-- if high SES kids go there-- that's fine- but responding to the curriculum concerns of those parents is not a high priority.

[Anonymous]

The sad thing is people reading this actually believe that it happened. From what I've experienced at the school and what I know of the Principal, her staff and the second grade teachers this incident is highly unlikely. Furthermore, what evidence is there that the school does not respond to the needs of all children. Again that was not my experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sad thing is people reading this actually believe that it happened. From what I've experienced at the school and what I know of the Principal, her staff and the second grade teachers this incident is highly unlikely. Furthermore, what evidence is there that the school does not respond to the needs of all children. Again that was not my experience.

This is OP. I would love to hear more about your experience as a parent there.

[Anonymous]

Norbit is underrated as a movie. Eddie really showed his range in the flick. Our young children need to appreciate his talent. Bring back Barrington to Cooke.

[Anonymous]

The least the teacher could have done would be to have shown a Richard Pryor movie. A much better comedian in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

I will encourage her to show Jo Jo Dancer: Your Life is Calling to her second graders.

[Anonymous]

The principal is quite good at sales... not so good at service. We were lured in by the beautiful building, the enthusiasm of the principal, and the IB curriculum. We left after one year, because she is not at all interested in meeting the needs or desires of the higher SES families. Yes, I know this sounds petty, realizing that there are serious social issues-- teen parents, absent parents, sufficient food at home, severe behavioral disorders, etc. But if you want to enroll and keep higher SES kids, you have to be prepared to engage their parents, to respond to their concerns (bullying (yes, even in PreK), meals, over-reliance on video entertainment). We had time and resources to contribute, and were blown off. Our child was bored, and we were made to feel spoiled for caring about our kid's education when other children had much more serious troubles.
It's ok for free daycare, I guess. But an educational community it is NOT.