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[quote=rashidipedia]Hello!

So, I am going to address the original post then sorta ruminate on the responses.

My bias:  I am a Coolidge alumnus from 1997 and I am the administrator of a 4,000 member completely unofficial Coolidge alumni group on Facebook.  The group is not affiliated with the school or the alumni association, and neither am I.  I am also the son and nephew of alumni.

My blind spot: I have lived in rural North Carolina for the past five years.  (This plays into one of my responses below)

My ethic:  I don't believe in anonymous message boards, which is why I am not anonymous today lol

To the initial question... I think Coolidge is and typically has been a decent neighborhood school. I chose Coolidge when Rabaut closed because it was too late to apply to Duke Ellington's programs.  I stayed at Coolidge because it had a positive culture and was average, normal, and regular.

I think a family should choose Coolidge today for those same reasons.  After years upon years of revolving Principals, Coolidge has Ms. Bright at the helm.  I believe she is only the third woman principal in the school's history and one of the longest serving ones in two generations.  I do not know her personally, but I know people she supervises and some of her DCPS peers.  She has a positive reputation. I can tell that the students like and respect her.  I believe she has created a culture of stability that the school needed overall, and particularly during and since COVID.

There was a period where I FULLY EXPECTED Coolidge not to make it.  I was resigned to believe "Welp, that's a nice spot for condos, hope I can get on the waitlist."  This was when enrollment was perilously low.  Now it is not.  That means something.

For me (former educator), I understand the interest in PARCC scores and AP scores.  Funny aside - when I was at Coolidge and took the AP English course, I pissed my teacher off when I refused to sit for the exam.  My rationale was "Nah.... I don't need the credits, thanks though"  AND I didn't feel like what he was teaching us lined up with the exam in such a way that I'd really score a 5. And why take it if I don't get a five.

(I now know me not taking the test probably screwed up his evaluation.  Oh well, should have been nicer to me.)

That said, I think the AP exams are dumb and racist and I don't care if they are part of a school or not.

Coolidge seems to me to have structures in place to guide students through college admissions in a reasonable, reflective, and realistic way.  Much like my era, students are getting placed at some decent colleges, some great colleges, and some colleges I've never heard of.  Others are entering professional and trade programs.

Coolidge would probably be best for families who don't need a full-service school that holds their hands.  I see the most successful students as the ones who have strong family support and are not susceptible to distractions.

Coolidge will not stress you out.  It hasn't stressed anyone out in like 80 years.  That's why I keep harping on the beautiful averageness of the school.  It's acceptable at Coolidge to be a big fish, a smarty-pants, a jock, a JROTC head, or whatever works for your child.

Plenty of other schools are out there if you need your kid to be an ivy leaguer or to stratify yourselves socially.  But it's also possible to do those things at Coolidge.

Now that I'm more middle-aged than young, I know it's all a game, and the families that win are the families that play--not those families who want their schools to do everything for them.
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