Cognia Accreditation Standards

Cognia External Review Team will interview East Baton Rouge Parish School System remotely through Zoom every six years. A multi-member team will evaluate the system’s adherence to the Cognia Performance Standards for K-12 School Systems.

Key Characteristic 1: Culture of Learning 

STANDARD 1:  Leaders cultivate and sustain a culture that demonstrates respect, fairness, equity, and inclusion, and is free from bias. 

STANDARD 2: Learners’ well-being is at the heart of the institution’s guiding principles such as mission, purpose, and beliefs. 

STANDARD 3: Leaders actively engage stakeholders to support the institution’s priorities and guiding principles that promote learners’ academic growth and well-being. 

STANDARD 4: Learners benefit from a formal structure that fosters positive relationships with peers and adults. 

STANDARD 5: Professional staff members embrace effective collegiality and collaboration in support of learners. 

STANDARD 6: Professional staff members receive the support they need to strengthen their professional practice.

Key Characteristic 2: Leadership for Learning 

STANDARD 7: Leaders guide professional staff members in the continuous improvement process focused on learners’ experiences and needs. 

STANDARD 8: The governing authority demonstrates a commitment to learners by collaborating with leaders to uphold the institution’s priorities and to drive continuous improvement. 

STANDARD 9: Leaders cultivate effective individual and collective leadership among stakeholders. 

STANDARD 10: Leaders demonstrate expertise in recruiting, supervising, and evaluating professional staff members to optimize learning. 

STANDARD 11: Leaders create and maintain institutional structures and processes that support learners and staff members in both stable and changing environments. 

STANDARD 12: Professional staff members implement curriculum and instruction that are aligned for relevancy, inclusion, and effectiveness. 

STANDARD 13: Qualified personnel instruct and assist learners and each other in support of the institution’s mission, purpose, and beliefs. 

STANDARD 14: Curriculum and instruction are augmented by reliable information resources and materials that advance learning and support learners’ personal interests. 

STANDARD 15: Learners’ needs drive the equitable allocation and management of human, material, digital, and fiscal resources.

Key Characteristic 3: Engagement of Learning 

STANDARD 16: Learners experience curriculum and instruction that emphasize the value of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and abilities. 

STANDARD 17: Learners have equitable opportunities to realize their learning potential. 

STANDARD 18: Learners are immersed in an environment that fosters lifelong skills including creativity, curiosity, risk taking, collaboration, and design thinking. 

STANDARD 19: Learners are immersed in an environment that promotes and respects student voice and responsibility for their learning. 

STANDARD 20: Learners engage in experiences that promote and develop their self-confidence and love of learning.  

STANDARD 21: Instruction is characterized by high expectations and learner-centered practices. 

STANDARD 22: Instruction is monitored and adjusted to advance and deepen individual learners’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum. 

STANDARD 23: Professional staff members integrate digital resources that deepen and advance learners’ engagement with instruction and stimulate their curiosity

Key Characteristic 4: Growth in Learning 

STANDARD 24 Leaders use data and input from a variety of sources to make decisions for learners’ and staff members’ growth and well-being. 

STANDARD 25: Leaders promote action research by professional staff members to improve their practice and advance learning. 

STANDARD 26: Leaders regularly evaluate instructional programs and organizational conditions to improve instruction and advance learning. 

STANDARD 27: Learners’ diverse academic and non-academic needs are identified and effectively addressed through appropriate interventions. 

STANDARD 28: With support, learners pursue individual goals including the acquisition of academic and non-academic skills important for their educational futures and careers. 

STANDARD 29: Understanding learners’ needs and interests drives the design, delivery, application, and evaluation of professional learning.  

STANDARD 30: Learners’ progress is measured through a balanced system that includes assessment both for learning and of learning.