Cognia (formerly AdvancED) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that accredits schools throughout the United States and internationally. Founded in 2006, Cognia represents more than 36,000 schools and institutions in about 80 countries. It has been guiding and supporting excellence in education through accreditation with the aim of helping schools realize their goals and meet the students’ current needs while navigating unprecedented change and creating new visions for the future.
COGNIA’s diagnostic consists of three components built around each of the three domains: leadership capacity, learning capacity, and resource capacity. COGNIA evaluated Cornel on various aspects, including the school’s mission, vision and core values, school operation, curriculum design, the effectiveness of learning, technological innovation and sustainable development, etc. based on more than 60 diagnostic criteria. Cognia partnership follows a standard of five-year accreditation cycle to make possible the continuous improvement of all accredited schools.
Cognia provides the Index of Education Quality (IEQ) as a holistic measure of overall performance based on a comprehensive set of standards and review criteria. An IEQ score below 250 indicates that the school has several areas within the Initiate. An IEQ in the range of 225–300 indicates that the school has several standards within the Improve level and is using results to inform continuous improvement and demonstrate sustainability. With the IEQ of 294.5, Cornel is beginning to reach the Impact level and is engaged in practices that are sustained over time and are becoming ingrained in the culture of the school.
Cornel School endeavors to create a family-like learning environment where English is taught at a first language level. Cornel is the first school to directly employ professional and qualified educators from abroad in Taichung City. We have been committed to a well-rounded education, thus we purposefully encourage our students to be risk-takers and independent thinkers, to be confident in expressing themselves, and to develop their communicative skills through teamwork. During the process of accreditation, the following aspects are identified by Cognia as strengths that Cornel School has been actively pursuing:
◆ Through a formalized process, Cornel School ensures that curriculum is aligned to the CCSS Standards
◆ The educational practices are implemented with quality and fidelity
◆ Student progress has been evaluated through various assessments and it is communicated effectively between parents and teachers
In future, under the supervision by Cognia, Cornel will adhere to the mission, vision and core value of school, continue its best practices to empower education and constantly strive to prepare students for global citizenship in the 21st century.
We believe earning Cognia accreditation is not the end, but the new beginning of the journey!