Students learn best when they receive consistent, high-quality instruction that translates into real-world skills. In Georgia’s Cobb County School District, it’s the key for attracting parents and families amid high competition from private and charter schools.
District Administration sat down with John Floresta, chief strategy and accountability officer at the Cobb County School District, to learn the strategy behind the district’s continued success as one of the top districts in the state.
Note: The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
For years, Cobb County has sustained strong performance. What is the biggest reason for this success?
Kids do best when there’s stability. When you have consistency in what we’re teaching, how we’re teaching and what we think students should know when they walk across the (graduation) stage, that is the answer to your question.
Our students perform very well when you compare them with their peers across big districts across the United States. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking at SATs, ACTs, scholarships or graduation rates.
We think that’s because we keep to the main thing [stability] and we don’t change it.
We believe that kids should have specific skills when they walk across the graduation stage. We focus on it. We train it. We develop professional learning around it. We resource it. And we haven’t changed that in well over a decade.
We also went to our parents, and they said they want kids who can communicate, think deductively and have a basic understanding of the core academic areas.
Your strategic plan emphasizes developing graduates who are scholars, leaders and citizens. How does this vision translate to the classroom?
School is a complicated place. There’s always competition for what every kid individually needs.
We have 17 high schools, 26 middle schools and 67 elementary schools. For us, that means if money or time is being spent, if there’s going to be a meeting or an academic program aligned to one of those skill sets, the answer is always yes.
At the end of the day, that’s why we find our strategic plan so useful. It’s a good communication tool for our community to say, “Here’s what we believe, here’s ultimately what you ask from us and here’s what we hold ourselves to.”
Can you tell me about some of the district’s college and career readiness offerings?
We value choice and providing as many choices to families as possible. As kids get older, you start thinking about college and career; those choices expand.
Dual enrollment for college credit is heavily offered in our high schools. We had more than 3,000 students this past year receive credits through our advanced placement program.
Now, we have extensive career, technical and agricultural education pathways that lead to credentials as well. Our goal is that once you graduate, you have the skills that are going to be useful in your career.
In any given year, we have about 8,500 graduates and we see at least 1,000 who go straight into the workforce with their industry credentials.
We’ll see another couple thousand who will walk into college with a semester or two’s worth of credits, which offsets the tuition cost for them and their family.
What are the district’s top priorities this upcoming school year?
Our priority these days has to be safety. We have 80 police officers who support our schools every single day and a variety of other safety programs. You can’t learn if you’re not safe.
In terms of academics, what’s top-of-mind is choice. Families just want more. They might want it traditionally, non-traditionally, hybrid, virtual or something in between. We’re saying, “You don’t have to go to the market, you don’t have to go online, you come to us.”
Three of the past four presidents have visited the district. What does that say about Cobb County’s commitment to excellence?
It’s an honor. Regarding President Trump’s visit, when the White House asks, you say yes. We’re proud to be recognized by three of the last four presidents.
It means we’re one of the largest school districts in the country. But more than that, we’ve got a proven track record of success: that you can operate a public school system successfully for decades, that you can produce 8,500 graduates a year who are productive members of society.
Looking ahead, what is the biggest challenge facing high-performing districts?
Funding. Families have more options than ever before. We think that’s a good thing. We think we’re going to win in the “free market,” if you want to call it that. We think we have the best product in education.
But because of those choices, there’s funding pressure on public education that maybe wasn’t the case 10 or 20 years ago. We anticipate that those funding battles will be painful as parents elect something else.
This story is the first in a two-part series. The second installment will examine Cobb County’s new enrollment policy.
