South Ripley Schools Celebrate Congnia District Honors

On Monday, administrators, teachers and staff were honored for all they have accomplished recently.

South Ripley Community Schools Corporation receives Cognia County Award of Excellence. Photo by Travis Thayer, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Versailles, IN) – A celebration was held in Versailles Monday afternoon to recognize the outstanding achievements of the South Ripley Community School Corporation.

Administrators, teachers, school board members and other staff from South Ripley Schools were joined by Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Kathy Jenner, Congresswoman Erin Houchin, State Senator Jean Leising and State Representative Alex Zimmerman, among others, to create the Congia Distinction District. Holiday.

South Ripley Community Schools Corporation learned it would be a recipient of the prestigious award in September.

This award was earned through a rigorous review process for Cognia’s participation in the 2023-24 school year. South Ripley will eventually become one of only 11 school districts in the world to receive this designation.

Based on the results of the 2023-2024 Cognia Accreditation Engagement Survey, these schools and systems demonstrated evidence of high quality teaching and learning. The institutions were assessed and provided evidence of growth in teaching quality, healthy learning cultures, engaging and high-quality learning environments, and effective instructional leadership—all characteristics Cogniia expects to see in quality schools.

The list of accomplishments is long in South Ripley, but several specific accomplishments from the past year were celebrated Monday. These achievements include the highest I-LEARN English/Language Arts pass rate in Southeast Indiana, the highest I-LEARN Math pass rate in Southeast Indiana, the highest I-READ- pass rate. 3 in southeast Indiana (98.4%), the second-highest rate for 3rd grade. Mathematics pass rate of all public school corporations in Indiana and the highest 4th grade math pass rate of any public school corporation in Indiana.

“I am very proud to stand here as the superintendent of the South Ripley Community School Corporation. I am very proud to look out and see the fantastic group of teachers that we are celebrating today, and I hope that you understand and feel that this is a celebration of your hard work. Because without what you did and the work that you did, we would not have received any of the accolades that we have received as of late,” said Superintendent Rob Moorhead.

Monday’s program featured several guest speakers, including Indiana Secretary of Education Dr. Katie Jenner. She touted South Ripley’s ability to overcome adversity.

“Your free lunch discount is above the state average. Typically, socioeconomic status and student achievement do correlate, but you beat the odds, and that’s been the case for many years,” Dr. Jenner said.

Congresswoman Erin Houchin also attended the event. During her speech, she announced that as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she entered the recognition of Cognia South Ripley into the Congressional Record, officially making it part of United States history.

Once accredited, an institution undertakes a similar engagement review process as described above at least every six years to maintain Cognia accreditation.

Dr. Phyllis Gilworth, Congia Regional Accreditation Assessor, was present Monday. She said she is excited to stay in South Ripley and go through this process for the next six years.

“This is the place where I would like to work, but more importantly, this is the place where I want my child to go to school. This is the highest compliment I can give as an educator and parent,” Gilworth added.

“We came here today to continue to ask ourselves, no matter how good we are, how do we continue to get better? We have to answer this question and fill this gap. I’m looking forward to seeing what we as a collective achieve next. Because as we have shown, nothing is impossible when you work together with the team and team of people that we have assembled here today,” Moorhead said.

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