Cognia (Formerly AdvancED) Research/School Improvement

Housed in the Innovation Division, the Cognia (Formerly AdvancED) research team is committed to generating and applying knowledge to inform and impact education practice. Our research efforts:

  • Provide analytical support for all aspects of Cognia (Formerly AdvancED)'s work, from psychometric reviews of current surveys and indexes of educational quality to Cognia (Formerly AdvancED) statistical analyses to support school improvement activities and internal quality. All analyses include the use of both classical test theory approaches (e.g. exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) as well as Item Response Theory approaches (e.g. Rasch analysis) to establish acceptable levels of evidence of reliability and validity of all instruments used and of data collected by Cognia (Formerly AdvancED);
  • Publicly report findings of interest to inform continuous improvement efforts throughout the greater education community. Each year, Cognia (Formerly AdvancED) collects vast quantities of data including tens of thousands of learner-centric classroom observations using the Effective Learning Environments Observation Toolâ„¢ (eleotâ„¢) and millions of student, parent and teacher surveys from thousands of schools and school systems. These data along with extant outcome data available from sources like NCES provide the basis for analyses that yield insights into educational practices and processes;
  • Partner with schools and systems within the Cognia (Formerly AdvancED) network to transform data into actionable knowledge for continuous improvement. Using rigorous quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation methodologies, the Research team leads and/or supports initiatives with schools and systems across our network to investigate real-world problems of practice.