The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Science. The lowest is 30% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cook Literacy Model School
Cook Literacy Model School is a small public elementary school in Winston-Salem serving prekindergarten through fifth grade. The school enrolls students across all grade bands, with the largest classes in grades three and four. Nearly all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population; other racial and ethnic groups are very small.
The school's name reflects a literacy focus, though state testing data shows mixed academic results. In math, about half of students in grades three through five performed at proficient or higher levels on the state's End-of-Grade Tests. In English language arts, proficiency was lower, with roughly a third of tested students meeting that bar. Science proficiency was higher, at about half of students, though the science assessment underwent changes in the state system that year, which can affect year-to-year comparability. Reading results in particular represent a soft spot; a parent may want to look into the school's approach to literacy instruction and any interventions in place to support students who are not yet proficient, given the school's explicit literacy focus.
Enrollment data was not available for special education or English learner populations, so it is not possible to characterize support for those students from the data on hand. The school's civil rights profile is not available.
Cook Literacy Model School sits in Winston-Salem, a mid-sized North Carolina city that has grown substantially over the past two decades, reversing prior population decline. The city combines a well-preserved historic downtown business district with an Innovation Quarter—a roughly hundred-acre research-and-residential redevelopment district built on former tobacco warehouses. Wake Forest School of Medicine, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, and Wake Forest University anchor the health and higher-education landscape alongside Winston-Salem State University. Major employers span healthcare, financial services (Truist, Wells Fargo), manufacturing and advanced industry (Reynolds American, Hanesbrands, Cook Medical, John Deere), and technology. Downtown is walkable and pedestrian-oriented with grid streets, murals, and greenways; outside the core, however, sidewalks are sparse.
Housing values in the school's zip code are below the state and national benchmarks, with median rental costs holding steady and affordable relative to median household income. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools district recently postponed three bond projects because construction costs roughly doubled, affecting families in those attendance areas who had expected new schools and renovations on the original timeline. However, the county provided supplemental funding in 2023 to preserve the remaining bond projects, and commissioners have signaled a potential future bond in 2028 without a rate increase. The district has also shifted to a modified academic calendar with earlier August starts and later May closings; this takes effect for all schools in 2026-27 and affects childcare and summer planning.
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