COOK EL

COOK EL is a modestly sized elementary-level community in AUSTIN, Texas, operated by AUSTIN ISD. The school works with 433 students in grades pre-K through 5.

COOK EL is one of 123 schools operated by AUSTIN ISD, a district that instructs 72,272 students overall.

Demographically, COOK EL records that 91% of students identify as Hispanic, making the school strongly Hispanic-majority. The remainder consists of 5% White. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 33%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 32 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 13.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.1:1 average. An estimated 95% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is above Travis County's rate of about 54%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, COOK EL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 32.4%, the actual is 21.9%, a residual of -10.5 points.

In the broader community, census data for Travis County shows the typical household earns roughly $99,611 per year, about 57% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Travis County's 333 public schools (combined enrollment of about 191,706 students), COOK EL is one campus in the mix.

The closest other public school is BASIS AUSTIN, roughly 0.5 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around COOK EL. On composite proficiency, COOK EL comes 3rd of 5 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 18.8%.

Geographically, the school is in an inner-city area.

Trend over the last 7 years. COOK EL's enrollment has ticked down 4% since 2018, when it stood at 453 (now 433). The Black share of enrollment shrank from 9% to 2% over that span.

In the discussion threads here, members of the COOK EL community share and discuss science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.