francis stevens, two rivers, cooke

[Anonymous]

anyone sending their child to one of these programs for preK, any thoughts from current parents?

[Anonymous]

There is a big movement to send kids to Cooke this year, particularly for PreS and PreK. Do a search in the archives for more information.

[Anonymous]

Be VERY skeptical of the schools that are promising to implement the IB program. The Chancellor has decided against DCPS paying for these initiatives and schools that are supposedly going to implement them will now have to come up with those dollars on their own. IB takes 3 years to even go through the application process. Schools like Thomson (which has a very savvy Principal as well as a grant to pay for it, and has at least some experience trying to implement IB) may pull it off. Deal probably can squeeze its parent base for funding. Shepherd may struggle: it's a toss up - good parent base and a little bit of experience but new principal. Cooke is untried and untested and inexperienced with the IB and after getting a brand new facility is NOT going to get extra dollars from downtown for a new IB program. They don't have the institutional knowledge and probably can't pull it off. I am not a parent at any of these schools, but I have been following IB implementation and it doesn't look good in DC right now. At some schools it looks better or worse than others.

[Anonymous]

Two Rivers is a great school, like all the hot charter schools - good luck getting in.

[Anonymous]

i am moving my child from private preschool to Cooke pre-k in the fall. definitely search Cooke and you'll see all of the discussion about the school.

the new facility promises to be fantastic (and non-toxic); the current early childhood teaching staff and counselors seem great; the principal seems very competent and forward-thinking; there is a growing groups of parents based in the Cooke neighborhood ready and willing to make contributions to the school.

even if the IB thing doesn't happen or slow to get off the ground, i would still be sending my child to Cooke.


if you are interested in Cooke, there is a new yahoo group being formed for parents and potential parents. the address is:

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=42879/*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HDCookeParents