Cobb families know the Cobb County School District has a reputation for excellence, as Cobb’s students consistently perform better than their peers. You could live anywhere, yet over 200,000 parents choose to raise their children in Cobb. You know that a Cobb education gives your children a competitive advantage for scholarships, college, future employment, and life.
Once again, Cobb families can feel even more confident their students are receiving a high-quality education following the most recent accreditation review by Cognia, one of Cobb’s accrediting agencies and one of the largest in the world.
After recently completing an Accreditation Engagement Review, which took almost one year to complete and included feedback from over 72,000 community members, every school in Cobb County has been accredited for an additional six years.
"Our parents should expect their students to have the best education possible, and this report confirms that our processes are working. We hold ourselves to the highest standards, and although we have now been told, again, how well our students are doing, we won’t stop improving," said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale during a presentation to the Cobb School Board.
Giving Cobb an Education Quality (IEQ) score of 332, Cognia said Cobb’s schools scored far above the Cognia IEQ Network Average of 253. The Index of Education Quality (IEQ) is central to the evaluation, a measure of overall educational performance.
“Our schools are of the highest quality, and families have another reason to be confident their children are receiving the best education at one of the lowest costs to the taxpayer,” said Board Chair Randy Scamihorn.
This Accreditation Review by Cognia thoroughly evaluated the academics, operations, and personnel throughout the entire District. The review compared Cobb’s performance to Cognia’s standards of excellence and highlighted the school district’s noteworthy practices. Cobb Schools exceeded Cognia’s Network Average on all seven major evaluation categories, including analysis of the learning environment, student performance, and stakeholder feedback.
The review highlighted several noteworthy practices within Cobb County Schools:
- Culture of One Team, One Goal
- Georgia’s BEST
- Cobb Teaching and Learning System (CTLS)
- Retention of Highly Qualified Workforce
- Strong Professional Learning
- Flexible Strategic Plans
- Cobb Collaborative Communities
“Learning, that’s what it’s all about. Parents care that their kids are learning, and this review says we need to keep it going, so our kids keep learning,” said Board member Brad Wheeler.
The review was led by Cognia staff and a team from the District, including Chief Strategy & 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,” said John Floresta, Cobb’s Chief Strategy & Accountability Officer. “We’ve listened to our community and are keeping our policies, money, and staff focused on what our parents expect— academics, not policy disputes.”
Of the 30 review standards, Cobb returned a perfect four stars on more than half. Two 4-star examples under the Culture of Learning review found that Cobb “Learners’ well-being is at the heart of the institution’s guiding principles such as mission, purpose, and beliefs,” and “Leaders actively engage stakeholders to support the institution’s priorities and guiding principles that promote learners’ academic growth and well-being.” The network average lagged Cobb by 0.6 points and 1.1 points, respectively.
The District’s perfect score in one of the standards in Leadership for Learning highlights how Cobb leaders successfully “demonstrate expertise in recruiting, supervising, and evaluating professional staff members to optimize learning.” In comparison, network peers returned an average score of 2.9.
In Cobb, instruction is characterized by high expectations and learner-centered practices according to the Engagement of Learning standard. With a network average of 3.0, Cobb’s peers have significant room for improvement.
One of Superintendent Ragsdale’s priorities is using data to make decisions, so it is not surprising Cobb got an A+ for leaders using “data and input from a variety of sources to make decisions for learners’ and staff members’ growth and well-being.” In contrast, the network average for the Growth in Learning standard is 3.0.
Cobb also scored a 4.0 on every criterion in the Stakeholder Feedback Analysis category. The Cognia Network Average is 3.1. After excelling during the Cognia accreditation, Cobb Schools will review standards and data annually, document improvements, and continue to develop and improve strategies to support students. A progress review will take place in 2026-2027.
