Cobb school board approves high school accreditations from alternative agency

Hunter Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·3 min read

Jun. 11—The Cobb County Board of Education Thursday voted unanimously to affirm the accreditations of its high schools by the Georgia Accrediting Commission.

The GAC, an alternative agency to accrediting firm Cognia, which the district also uses, reviewed all the district's high schools in the spring and voted to accredit them at its highest level, "accredited with quality."

The school district began exploring GAC accreditation after Cognia, a much larger agency which accredits schools around the country, conducted an accreditation review of CCSD, which it later voided.

Cognia has worked with Cobb schools for decades and typically reviews the district's accreditation every five years, last renewing it in 2019. But last year, the school board's three Democratic members — Charisse Davis, Leroy Tre' Hutchins, and Dr. Jaha Howard — asked the firm to take another look at the district amid intense partisan infighting. Cognia also received 50 other complaints about the district, but never made those complaints public.

The results of that review were shared with the school district in November. Cognia CEO Mark Elgart had insisted the district's accreditation was never in jeopardy, though the report outlined several areas for improvement in the board and district and said a team would be returning the following year to follow up on their progress.

Then, in March, Cognia did an about-face, invalidating most of its findings, admitting the district had pointed out factual errors in the report. Cognia acknowledged that the report blurred the line between evidence-based assessments and subjective judgments of the district's decisions. Cognia also revealed that the review was conducted by volunteers — not its own staff.

Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said Thursday that the GAC accreditation of Cobb high schools was simply an extra layer of accreditation, and not meant to replace Cognia.

"This has no bearing whatsoever on the Cognia accreditation," Ragsdale said. "Cognia accreditation is still separate, and is in good standing. But this allows us to be dual-accredited, as many other large districts are."

Ragsdale added that the GAC accreditation also does not "even insinuate that we're looking to do something different with Cognia accreditation."

Board members approved the affirmation of the GAC's accreditation unanimously at its voting meeting. The district paid the GAC about $3,000 to review its high schools, and will pay an annual fee of $850 to maintain its relationship with the firm.

"I'm glad to see that we're seeking this additional layer of accreditation, especially in light of Cognia's inability to adequately provide guidance to a district like ours," said Davis, during the board's work session. "But I do have a question: With $850 of annual recurring costs, why is it so cheap? And how many people do they have on staff actually doing the work of evaluating our high schools?"

John Floresta, the district's chief strategy and accountability officer, told Davis that the GAC uses current and retired educators in a similar fashion to Cognia. As for the pricing, he simply said he was thankful for its low cost.

Davis asked if GAC, like Cognia, uses volunteers to assess schools.

"They are funded through GAC," Floresta replied. "I'm not sure how those mechanics work."

In other business, the board:

Approved the appointment of an architect, Sy Richards Architects, for a $355,000 fee, for the construction of a $7 million interior school security project as part of Ed-SPLOST V;

Approved the appointment of a construction manager, Evergreen Construction, for a 1.63% fee, for the construction of gymnasium addition and renovations at South Cobb High School;

Approved a permanent easement with Georgia Power to move power poles as a result of the new gym being built Sprayberry High School.