A richly inclusive school
COOK Education Center is a richly inclusive co-educational school, enrolling students across nearly the full age range of special education eligibility and nearly the full range of disabilities.

A traditional calendar
School is in session for 210 days on a traditional calendar that typically begins the day after Labor Day each September.  The school day is from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. MWThF and from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesdays.

A full complement of courses
Our curriculum and program is commensurate with the range of student talent and interest. We offer the full compliment of courses necessary to achieve a high school diploma and we offer a great variety of classes that teach functional skills and self-care skills.

Academics ● Functional Skills ● Self Care ● Social Skills ● Student Skills & Learning Strategies ● Computers ● Music ● Visual Arts ● Sports & Fitness ● Karate ● Photography ● Video & Movies ● Cooking

COOK Education Center makes school as fun as possible
while emphasizing the achievement of IEP goals.
We “catch ‘em being good” all day every day!

Elementary, middle, and high school
COOK Education Center’s Foundations Program for elementary and middle school students, has its classrooms located on the lower floor of the school and enrolls up to 40 students. The COOK Secondary Program, which has its classrooms on the upper floor of the school, enrolls up to 110 secondary students. We enroll public school students with IEP’s on contract with San Diego area school districts and we enroll privately funded students.

Collaboration enhances effectiveness
We know that a student’s educational and social success is greatly enhanced through effective collaboration and communication between the school, the student’s family, and the personnel representing the referring public school district. As is true of all TIEE schools, we at the COOK Education Center are committed to increasing our students’ academic, behavioral, and social growth by creating and implementing systems that support meaningful collaboration with our students’ families. Families are welcomed and encouraged to participate in our various social events throughout the year.

Parents are involved
Parents of COOK Education Center students are involved in all aspects of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process. They participate with our instructional teams in both the development and the implementation of IEP’s. Prior to IEP meetings, we gather information from families, so that their concerns and hopes are considered in their child’s plan. Parents are informed of their rights and empowered by participating in the development of goals so that they may have an active role as decision-making members of the IEP team.

Parents are informed
Parents are informed of student progress on a regular basis through telephone contact. Formal progress reports are provided quarterly to families and home school districts. These reports are designed to provide clear and concise information on the achievement of each student’s goals and benchmarks.

Small-group instruction
Our students are taught in small groups at a student to staff ratio averaging almost 2:1, so students really get the attention they need to stay on task, to behave appropriately, and to achieve. COOK Education Center’s functions are not limited to small groups. Larger groups of students participate in sports, lunch, assemblies, talent show, and other special events, including certain field trips.

Grouping for instruction based on skill in the subject matter
Students are grouped for instruction in specific classes based on their age, skill level, and social sophistication. For example, students who are reading at the mid-fourth grade level would be grouped together for their reading class if they were approximately the same age and their interactions with one another were appropriate.  However, each of the students in the reading class might be in a different group of students for math depending on their individual skill levels in math, and so on.

Direct Instruction
Instruction in the basic skills of reading, language, mathematics, and spelling are taught using the Direct Instruction materials and methods because of the extensive positive research support the programs have received. We supplement reading instruction for some beginning readers with the “Headsprout” program, and, for students who require a whole-word approach to beginning reading, we implement the Edmark program. Like the Direct Instruction program, both of these programs are supported by solid research.

Explicit instruction of “big ideas” in content areas
COOK Education Center students, including those who are on a diploma track, are occasionally well behind their age mates in various academic areas, including the so-called content areas like history, science, and so on. For those students who are diploma bound or whose IEP’s specify content area goals, COOK Education Center searches for materials that meet California textbook approval and have been designed in keeping with the principle of “big ideas.” These are concepts or principles that are highly general and which can serve as anchor points for many facts, concepts, and principles. For example, we like Douglas Carnine, Donald Crawford, and Mark Harness’s Understanding American History, because it shows how the “big idea” of “Problem-Solution-Effect” is generally applicable to many of the events in American history, making this subject much easier for our students to grasp than they otherwise would if merely told about the event and when it occurred. In content areas that do not have materials constructed on the principle of “big ideas,” our teachers make every effort to organize their lessons to align with the California core content curriculum standards in ways that the “big ideas” are readily apparent, learned by our students, and used.

Functional skills, independence, and self care
For some COOK Education Center students, academics, in the traditional sense, are not as appropriate as more functionally relevant skills. Depending on a student’s IEP, the COOK Education Center functional curriculum can include classes in money-management and budgeting, basic computer navigation, functional reading, health and nutrition, current events, and so on. For some skills, including functional academics, vocational skills, community skills, daily living skills, and social skills, initial teaching is conducted in school simulations of “real life,” and, subsequently, community outings are used to help transfer those skills to “real life” settings.

The COOK Education Center curriculum also includes student goals associated with independence in performing daily living tasks such as personal care, domestic activities, and socially appropriate behaviors.

Social skills
COOK Education Center implements the program for student discipline known as Positive Behavior Intervention and Support, which means that social skills and school procedures are taught throughout the school day. Our team has high expectations for our students and directly teaches the students how to meet those expectations. The counselors at COOK play an important role in designing and implementing social skills lessons; however, the entire team is responsible for prompting desirable behavior and reinforcing it according to the student’s individual program.

Behavior Intervention Plans
For students whose problem behaviors require it, sophisticated Behavior Intervention Plans (or Behavior Support Plans) based on Functional Analysis or Functional Assessment are provided as part of the program. These Plans are designed to teach students how to fulfill their needs and wants in socially acceptable ways and at appropriate times. We carefully measure student progress in achieving socially acceptable behaviors because, once they do so, our students more easily learn the other skills they need. They also acquire more and better friends.

DIS Services
Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and counseling are offered as Designated Instruction and Services (DIS) according to student need. In our model, DIS personnel work closely with other members of a student’s team, so that the skills the student must achieve can be worked on throughout the student’s day, sometimes by the specialist, but more often by other members of the team who have been trained by the specialist to implement the relevant tasks.

We begin transition planning early
Transition plans are developed and become a part of each student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) at the age of 16. For students enrolled at COOK Education Center, transition planning and instruction begins much earlier.

Successful transition depends on being well liked
We directly teach the skills necessary for our students to be liked by their teachers and other supervisors, the skills essential to effective self-management, the skills involved in helping others, and socially appropriate and engaging leisure skills. We also teach responsibility for and the care of materials and equipment, and we emphasize the importance of maintaining a clean and organized workspace.

Successful transition is an individual matter
Each student’s unique transition plan depends on the student’s talents and interests. For some students, the transition plan includes post-secondary education; for others, the plan involves goals for independent living and performance on real jobs; and, for still others, the plan involves self-care, safety, and being likable to those who will be essential to their adult living.

Employability skills can be essential to successful transition
Our students can be assigned in-school jobs that permit them to acquire the essential job-related skills that are expected of young people in real employment settings. We also make available real-world jobs in San Diego community settings, including Mama’s Kitchen, the San Diego Food Bank, Tecolote Canyon Ranger Station, and others. COOK Education Center personnel provide the necessary coaching and supervision of its students in these jobs so that success is virtually guaranteed. Ideally, by the time of graduation, those of our students whose transition plan includes independent living and a real-world job, will have experienced several such jobs, so that they will have been prepared in a generalized way for successful employment.

Transition options
Transition can occur within COOK Education Center, to another TIEE school, or to public school. Students who enroll at an elementary school age will be served in the COOK Education Center’s Foundations program. If they continue to be enrolled in COOK Education Center, they will eventually be transitioned to the COOK Education Center’s Secondary Program either in the diploma-bound curriculum or in a more functionally oriented curriculum. Students can remain enrolled at COOK Education Center until their 22nd birthday, at which time they are no longer eligible for special education and services, so must graduate. Some students will qualify for transition to TIEE’s Urban Skills Center on or about their 18th birthday and can be educated at that school until achieving a high school diploma or until reaching their 22nd birthday. Each year, some students transition to a public school, which depends on the decision of the student’s IEP team and the availability of an appropriate program in the student’s home school district.

Graduation
COOK Education Center holds graduation ceremonies at the end of each school year. Students who have accumulated the required number of high school credits specified by their home school district and who have passed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) obtain a high school diploma from their home school district. The diploma can be awarded at the COOK Education Center graduation ceremonies. COOK Education Center does not confer high school diplomas.

Students who have not earned the high school credits or who have not been “diploma bound” will earn a Certificate of Completion that will be awarded at the COOK Education Center graduation ceremonies.