The Source

To be fair, we engaged in some light test prep at other times during the school year by asking students to answer a randomly selected released item as a “Bell Ringer” or “Ticket Out the Door” activity, but ultimately as soon as flowers started blooming, it was “go time” for... Read the full article >

In a pilot program initiated by an act of the Tennessee legislature, school leaders partnered with Cognia to turn around two schools in Memphis, Trezevant High School and Hawkins Mill Elementary School, that had been designated for improvement by the state for over a decade. Not only did these efforts result... Read the full article >

Our current educational accountability system, which depends on large-scale, summative assessments aligned with state standards has been, at best, a missed opportunity. Although institutions are expected to improve teaching and learning based on assessment results, these assessments only provide evidence at the end of the academic year, restricting any real... Read the full article >

The first step to drive intensive school improvement and school turnaround is to conduct an in-depth Diagnostic Review. Whether for schools needing targeted or comprehensive support or to address pockets of underperformance within the education ecosystem, the Diagnostic Review process identifies pathways for improvement through an in-depth review and analysis... Read the full article >

State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler has described Cognia as a crucial partner in her efforts to support the continuous improvement of each school and district as well as the state department. In a recent interview, Baesler described her perspective on partnerships and some of the ways in which Cognia has worked... Read the full article >

The time is overdue to rethink K-12 education policy around accountability in the United States. After twenty plus years of top-down state and federal accountability systems, there’s growing recognition the current frames aren’t working to ensure quality and equity. We must reimagine accountability to better prepare students, families, communities, and... Read the full article >

These questions are the focus of two different approaches—accountability and accreditation— that ought to work together in more mutually reinforcing ways to improve student and school performance. 1. State accountability systems. State education accountability systems are federally mandated, state-determined efforts to set goals for performance that measure, rate, and rank... Read the full article >

For teachers, understanding what students know and can do requires teachers to navigate a broad array of assessment approaches, all of which are combined in so-called “balanced assessment systems” that provide opportunities for educators to: Verify learning of a specific unit of instruction Determine whether and how students are struggling... Read the full article >

Cognia’s Performance Standards and Protocol underpin all our solutions in service to schools and learners—professional learning, accreditation and certification, assessment, turnaround, and school improvement. The accreditation standards outline expectations for Cognia accredited institutions based on what the latest education research indicates makes for quality schools. The protocol outlines the requirements... Read the full article >

I have been superintendent of Liberty Public Schools (LPS) in Missouri since 2014. The district has consistently met the standards set by the Missouri school improvement program, the state’s accountability and accreditation system. That system offers a certain level of rigor; every few years, the state reshuffles the deck and... Read the full article >