On Thursday, November 11h, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced that the Special Review conducted by Cognia, an accrediting agency, concluded. The District was informed the Special Review team did not find grounds to justify changing the accreditation status, and the Cobb County School District remains a fully accredited school district. Instead, the Cognia Special Review Team Report provides "recommendations, directives, and improvement priorities outlined in the Special Review Report," which it requests the District address in the next twelve months. 

The Cobb County School District serves approximately 18,000 employees, 110,000 students in a community of over 800,000 people. In January 2020, the District was awarded a full, five-year reaccreditation. The reaccreditation recognized the District's strengths that consistently lead to the District's reputation as one of the nation's highest-performing school districts. Cobb students outperform their metro Atlanta peers on the SAT, ACT, Georgia Milestone assessments, and high school graduation rates. The District is also consistently recognized by national publications for high rates of employee satisfaction and fiscal management. 

In February 2021, Cognia informed the District it received approximately 50 community complaints generally alleging the District was not complying with Cognia's Performance Standards for School Systems, which Cognia believed necessitated a special inquiry of the District's compliance. 

"We are grateful to our staff and community members assisting with the Special Review. As is the case with any feedback we receive, our educators will review Cognia's process and recommendations closely and consider areas of recommended growth. I am committed to keeping our focus on high-quality teaching and learning and meeting Cobb County's high expectations for all students," said Superintendent Ragsdale. 

Through the Cognia Special Review process, the District was required to respond to issues Cognia contended were raised by the approximately fifty complaints. While the Special Review Team conducted a limited review of evidence submitted by the District, the Special Review stated its examination of Board of Education meetings and select interviews did not show the District was failing to meet Cognia's accreditation standards. 

In the Special Review Team's opinion, the evidence (which can be seen here and here) it considered showed the District met "quality practices that meet the standards" in one of the four standards areas under review and "areas to enhance and extend current improvement efforts" in the remaining three standard areas. 

"I am happy that the world-class education provided to Cobb students and families is obvious to the Special Review Team. However, it is important to remember we received full accreditation less than two years ago. Despite numerous requests to Cognia, there remains a great deal we do not know about this review. We still have not been provided with the specific allegations against the District, which led Cognia to believe this special review was needed. We do not know why so much weight was given to allegations made in public comment, which are often not representative of the community as a whole. It is disappointing the Special Review Team chose not to consider much of the context leading to various Board decisions, and their review of evidence requested from the District appears to be cursory and incomplete. While I am pleased this review is unlikely to have an immediately negative effect on the District's students, it did serve as a significant distraction for the staff," said Board Chair Randy Scamihorn. 

Although the District did not receive the specific community complaints submitted to Cognia, District staff took the review seriously and prioritized transparency during the entire process. District staff spent over 1,000 hours, at the cost of approximately $75,000, preparing evidence for Cognia. 

For information on how the special review was initiated and the District's correspondence with Cognia, please visit the District's Cognia Special Review Page.