Welcome to our COGNIA page. You may be asking yourself, “What exactly is this COGNIA thing, and why is it important to me?” All questions are good questions; this is no exception.
What is COGNIA?
COGNIA is our accrediting association. It is the largest of its kind in the world. Over 30,000 schools in 70 countries (more than 16 million kids) are served by COGNIA.
Accreditation is the result, but the process is far more important. COGNIA has a cyclical structure that helps us improve our school. Holy Trinity School is an outstanding institution but to maintain that status we must always seek to improve.
Why is COGNIA important to me?
Many of the improvements and procedures you see around school are a result of past or present COGNIA initiatives. Some of the past initiatives include the use of Accelerated Math, the IDEAS problem solving method, the SQ3R model for reading, and our Poverty USA projects. Currently, the initiatives include Individual Plans of Study, Kindergarten Readiness and Social Emotional Learning. To determine what areas we are going to improve we rely on data collected from Kansas Assessments, STAR tests, ACRE testing, chapter and unit tests, and just about any other data we can use to help our kids. One of the most important pieces is our surveys. We started this cycle with a survey for parents, teachers, students, and alumni of HTS. We gathered that information and used that to help narrow in on three areas for improvement: reading, writing, and religion. The teachers then broke up into these committees to research what we needed to address and how best to address it.