In this blog, KA’s summer intern, Julianna Collado, and Penn Hill Group Associate, Soraya Zrikem, met with Monica Blomker from Cognia to discuss their MyVoice project which uses real-time teacher feedback to enhance and cultivate a school improvement culture by promoting educator voice and agency.

Collado: What is the MyVoice project? How did researchers think through its creation?

Blomker: This project grew out of evidence that school culture has a significant effect on student achievement (Bektaş, Karadağ, AY & Çoğaltay, 2015) and that teachers have the greatest impact on establishing a positive school culture. MyVoice is an online school culture-monitoring platform that enables teachers and leaders to foster collaboration and develop a schoolwide commitment to improvement. The MyVoice tool is designed to elevate teachers’ voices and guide conversations to improve culture, collaboration and teacher well-being, which are frequently cited as key issues in the retention and recruitment of teachers. MyVoice was created by two former K-12 school superintendents, one of whom was a national superintendent of the year. Together, they wanted to leverage teacher voice to retain talent in the profession. This platform is centered around ten evidence-based culture drivers and 48 evidence-based culture indicators to capture real-time teacher perception on each of the indicators to provide continuous feedback to leaders. From there, leaders and teachers can jointly identify, collaborate and take collective responsibility through collective action.

Collado: How did Cognia get involved with New Mexico schools for the MyVoice project?

Blomker: Cognia maintains State advisory councils to inform and enhance our work across the country. Our New Mexico council includes a representative from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, who noted alignment between the Kellogg Foundation’s mission and Cognia’s MyVoice tool. The Kellogg Foundation is committed to serving underrepresented and underserved student populations, which are directly impacted by staffing challenges, particularly among teachers of color. Cognia received a Kellogg Foundation grant to partner with schools in New Mexico for the MyVoice project and 25 schools quickly volunteered to participate.

Collado: What do educators and school administrators think about the tool? 

Blomker: School leader feedback has been positive. Dr. Robbie Hooker, Superintendent of Social Circle City Schools in GA, reports “Using real-time formative data, MyVoice has created opportunities to create real, meaningful conversations with teachers and explore solutions that lead to new ways of thinking.” Knowing the importance of supportive leadership, teachers and his schools’ administrators are now working together to seek and implement solutions for students’ academic success and teachers’ growth and development. He is creating a healthy school culture where teachers are less likely to leave their profession knowing they are heard and understood. Dr. Hooker’s observation highlights how MyVoice successfully empowers teacher and school leaders to use actionable feedback for improving school culture. Nathan Pierantoni, the Director of School Improvement, Data, and Assessment at Farmington Municipal Schools in New Mexico, further reinforced this finding by sharing “[t]eachers are very eager to engage in dialogue, and principals see the value of two-way communication based around their input on the [school culture] inventory…and is already improving the culture in our buildings through increasing trust and the co-creation of solutions.”

Collado: Since the MyVoice project launched, what impact has it had? In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic affected educator mental health and the MyVoice project?

Blomker: The MyVoice grant-funded implementation in New Mexico launched in Spring 2022 and will continue through December 2023. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions, which have intensified many of the challenges associated with teacher burnout and attrition, MyVoice captures information on teacher’s Sense of Belonging and their Support and Care, along with specified indicators addressing teacher needs and agency. As the project continues, ongoing data collection will be used to examine the impact of this collaborative approach to addressing teacher well-being and school culture, especially in response to unexpected challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic.

About Cognia’s work

Cognia is a global, nonprofit improvement organization dedicated to helping institutions and other education providers grow learners, teachers and leaders. Cognia offers accreditation and certification, assessment and professional services within a framework of continuous improvement. Serving 36,000 public and private institutions from early learning through high school in more than 90 countries, Cognia brings a global perspective to advancing teaching and learning. Cognia’s research and evidence-based solutions aim to integrate local stakeholders and decision makers into all improvement processes, to drive collective ownership, coherent strategic goals and data-driven decision making. Cognia works with state and local education agencies across the country to understand and use assessment data to inform continuous school improvement efforts. Cognia partners with education agencies and schools to support and accelerate improvement through expert third-party reviews and needs assessments, particularly for schools receiving school improvement designations under ESSA accountability systems. Cognia’s MyVoice is an online platform where teachers have voice in rating and improving the culture of their schools.

Related Work

MyVoice: Activating the Power of School Culture Through Teacher Voice and Agency

A Courageous Approach to School Improvement: Teacher Agency and Voice

About Julianna Collado. Ms. Collado is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she majored in Public Policy and minored in Latina/o Studies. In college, she held executive positions in the student organization La Casa, participated in the UnidosUS Afro-Latinx Lideres Avanzando Fellowship, and worked multiple campus jobs in the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs and Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives. She is excited to be pursuing her Master’s in Education Policy at the University of Texas, Austin.

About Soraya Zrikem. Ms. Zrikem was an Associate at Penn Hill Group, an education and workforce policy consulting and lobbying firm in Washington, DC. She provided policy and administrative support to Knowledge Alliance in addition to various other clients in the K-12, higher education and workforce sector. Ms. Zrikem is a 2021 graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she majored in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) and English.

About Monica Blomker. Ms. Blomker is Director of Effectiveness at Cognia, a nonprofit school improvement organization specializing in accreditation, assessment and professional services. The former math teacher and consultant previously served as the accountability director for the state of Oklahoma. Ms. Blomker has a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Mathematics from the University of Colorado and University of West Florida, respectively. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies at the University of North Texas.