Cognia gives Bellevue Public Schools high marks; district reports strategic-plan progress and improved school climate

Bellevue Public Schools received strong ratings from Cognia during the school board meeting, and district leaders reported progress on their five-year strategic plan along with improved results on an annual school-climate survey.

Shana Vogler, regional director for Cognia, told the board the district scored above the network average across the organization’s performance standards and was recognized with three “noteworthy practices.” “Bellevue Public Schools demonstrates a strong commitment to continuous improvement,” Vogler said, adding that the district “excels in data driven decision making” and “fosters a thriving culture of learning.”

The report showed Bellevue’s composite comparison score at about 3.38 versus a Cognia network average of 2.96, and the district received a 4.0 (the highest score) on the review of its analysis of student-performance data, Vogler said.

District leaders said those findings align with regular updates to the district strategic plan. A district official presenting the plan said the 2018 strategic plan produced specific changes — expanded mental-health supports, instructional coaches, a tiered academic and behavior support system, the ACE alternative program, and the Frank Newman Career Center — and that the current five-year plan emphasizes keeping the strategy “alive” through regular board reports.

The board also reviewed the district’s most recent school-climate survey. The presenter said the survey collected responses from 3,346 students in grades 5–12, 605 staff members and 1,206 parents. Staff responses were particularly strong: 99.6 percent of responding staff said they get along well with other members of their school, and 96 percent said teachers frequently recognize positive student behavior. Parent responses included 91 percent saying they feel welcomed at their child’s school and 95 percent saying their student feels safe traveling to and from school.

Student responses were lower on some items: roughly 70 percent of students selected “agree” or “strongly agree” that they feel safe at school, the presenter said. The board and administrators discussed possible reasons for that gap, including national media coverage of school violence, lockdown drills and on-campus concerns such as students gathering in restrooms and vaping.

Administrators pointed to early signs of improvement in chronic absenteeism: the presenter said first-semester chronic absenteeism in a prior year had been 22.51 percent and that students currently on pace to be chronically absent were about 19.75 percent. The district defined chronic absenteeism as missing more than 10 percent of school days.

Board members asked follow-up questions about survey methodology, whether some survey items should be reworded (for example, distinguishing “I like school” from “I like my school”), and school-level follow-up such as principals discussing survey results directly with students. The presenter said the district breaks data down by building so individual schools can incorporate findings into building-improvement plans.

The board was also told the district is migrating from the Viewpoint data platform to EduClimber (the vendor that purchased Viewpoint) to maintain and improve teacher and administrator access to student and operational data.

The report concluded with an announcement that the strategic-plan reports will include explicit success measures and evidence; presenters said 38 of 48 survey items showed improvement year over year, three decreased and seven were unchanged. The board received the accreditation report and strategic-plan update as information.