Schools in the United States participate in accreditation reviews conducted every five years by nationally or internationally recognized agencies whose purpose is to ensure that educational institutions meet acceptable levels of quality. Schools within the Archdiocese of New Orleans are accredited through Cognia, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that accredits primary and secondary schools throughout the United States and internationally. Our Lady of Lourdes’ most recent accreditation review was conducted March 22-24, 2022.
With a goal of helping schools improve outcomes for all learners, the process included conducting interviews with school administrators, faculty and support staff, students, parents, and community partners. The Cognia engagement team reviewed over 538 evidentiary documents such as school advisory board reports, student achievement data, lesson plans, pacing guides, curriculum design materials, communications and survey data from students, parents, faculty and the community. The information obtained through this process was evaluated against Cognia Performance Standards to determine the overall effectiveness of the school in educating students.
The school was evaluated on 30 different standards under the headings of Leadership, Learning, and Resources using the Cognia Performance Standards Diagnostic. This measuring diagnostic consists of three components built around each of three Domains – Leadership Capacity, Learning Capacity, and Resource Capacity with results reported within four ranges identified by color:
The rankings are then figured into an Index of Education Quality (IEQ) score, a number that correlates to overall performance on a scale of 100 to 400. The IEQ is a holistic measure of overall performance based on a comprehensive set of standards and review criteria with IEQ scores of 275 and above indicating that an the institution engages in practices that are sustained over time and are becoming ingrained in the culture of the institution. The average of all Cognia Improvement Network evaluations over the last five years is 278.34 – 283.33. With this most recent Cognia review, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School surpassed the network average by nearly 50 points earning a score of 332.50 (up from 263.59 in 2015). General themes expressed by the review team relating to school strengths and areas for improvement include:
In summary, the review team found Our Lady of Lourdes to have a strong culture of community, commitment to mission and purpose and engagement of stakeholder in the school’s improvement and decision making processes. It also noted that our faith-based curriculum is aligned to high expectations and standards designed to improve student performance and prepare students for future academic success and career planning. Finally, the review team’s recommendations resulted in an IEQ score indicating that Our Lady of Lourdes is an exemplary school.
I encourage you, as members of the greater Our Lady of Lourdes family, to review the Cognia Engagement Review Report in its entirety HERE.
The success of this review process reflects the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff, students, parents and all other stakeholders committed to the success of OLL. Geaux Knights!
Yours in Christ,
Roy H. Delaney, M.Ed., M.A.
Principal