By Rebecca Gaunt
The Cobb County School District received high marks and six more years of accredited status from the Cognia accreditation firm after a recent comprehensive review.
The review took almost a year and was led by Cognia staff, along with the district’s Chief Strategy and Accountability Officer John Floresta and Assistant Superintendent Ehsan Kattoula.
“This review was narrowly focused on what it should be, student learning and how our staff operates our schools,” Floresta said during his presentation at Thursday’s work session.
In 2021, Cognia performed a special review after complaints from Democratic board members Jaha Howard, Charisse Davis, and Leroy Tre’ Hutchins and members of the public.
The special review focused on issues related to board governance, and suggested improvements regarding leadership, fiscal decisions, and closing achievement gaps. It gave the district one year to make improvements. At the time, Cognia CEO Mark Elgart said the district’s accreditation was not in jeopardy.
The backlash to the review was immediate. State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) filed a bill that would exclude governance from accreditation criteria and require a focus on student outcomes and financial stability. Former state Sen. Lindsey Tippins (R-West Cobb) also filed a bill to change Cognia’s evaluation practices.
In March 2022, Elgart stood before the board and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to retract the report citing factual error.
While the special review was conducted by volunteers, this review was led by professional Cognia staff, whom Ragsdale pointedly referred to as “honest.”
Post 5 board member David Banks went so far as to refer to the special review as corrupt.
“Cognia is an accreditation agency and they were thrust into the middle of political nonsense that was going on here,” Ragdale said.
Cognia cited the Georgia’s Best program, which pays for staff’s higher education, the culture of One Team, One Goal, and CTLS (Cobb Teaching and Learning System) as examples of the district’s noteworthy practices.
According to the presentation, Cognia considered feedback from 72,000 community members.
As for areas for improvement, the report recommended the district monitor the implementation of Ellevation (performance tracking program) and measure student outcomes.
Cognia awarded Cobb an education quality score of 332. The Cognia network average is 253.
Read the report in full on the district website.
Rebecca Gaunt earned a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree in education from Oglethorpe University. After teaching elementary school for several years, she returned to writing. She lives in Marietta with her husband, son, two cats, and a dog. In her spare time, she loves to read, binge Netflix and travel.
