Covington Independent School District shared the good news that their scores on the Cognia Accreditation Report have improved dramatically.
The report is done every five years, so the report was done last in 2017.
“The results are reflected in the color-coded results,” said Ketsy Fields, Cognia Kentucky regional director. “There is no red! There is no yellow! It shows you are moving in the right direction.”
Under each standard is a row of colors that have definitions. The color red has a rating of ‘insufficient,’ and the description identifies areas with insufficient evidence, or evidence that indicates little or no activity leading toward improvement.
The color yellow is listed as ‘initiating,’ and it represents areas to enhance and extend current improvement efforts.
Green indicates ‘improving,’ and it pinpoints quality practices that are improving, and meets the standards.
Blue is listed as ‘impacting’, and it demonstrates noteworthy practices producing clear results that positively impact the institution. This is the highest rating, and the much desired rating.
Covington Independent School District scored 23 blue ratings and 7 green. They had no red or yellow ratings.
Lead Evaluator Donna Wear related that when she talked to Superintendent Alvin Garrison, he told her he hoped she could hear the excitement in his voice.
“The teachers, communications, custodians, cafeteria workers, statistics, everybody is rolling in the same direction,” Garrison said.
Fields also pointed to the individual numbers of the IEQ, or Index Educational Quality, which came in at 243.90 in 2017, and this year bumped up to 355.97. This is higher than the national average of 278.34 to 283.33.
The range of annual Cognia improvement Network IEQ average is always included with final scores so that the institutions being rated will be able to compare scores with other institutions in the network.
As far as the comparison goes, in 2017 Covington didn’t have any red categories; this year was the same. But 75 percent of the scores in 2017 were yellow for the district, and this year there were no yellows. Both years have 25 percent of the scores in green, but this year 75 percent of the scores were blue, the top of the line, whereas there were no blue scores in 2017.
“This is so positive” said Scott Alter, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “This shows us we have systems in place, and if we keep going, we will be successful. The hard work is paying off.”
The findings included talking to parents, and students, as well as administrators and then triangulating all the data. Field complimented the district on the community involvement also, commenting that it says a lot when the community is also involved in the collaborative effort to educate children.
Board member Tom Haggard was excited, as was the entire board, all having smiles on their faces.
“As a board member who is often impatient to see the outcomes, I think I’ll be the first to say that Mr Garrison deserves great admiration and respect for obviously taking the report five years ago so seriously,” Haggard said. “I am very much looking forward to the spring to see the outcomes, and what comes next.”
