Featured Article
The Gold Standard of Student Engagement:
Coherence, Curriculum, and Kagan in Johnson County Schools
Johnson County Schools is a rural district located in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. More than 63% of our students are economically disadvantaged. Limited funding and access to opportunity are realities we face each day.
We are also the largest employer in Johnson County. Many of our teachers and staff once walked our halls as students. Now they serve the same community that shaped them. That creates something rare. We are not simply district employees — we are Golden Eagles. Within a tight-knit Appalachian community, that identity carries responsibility. It fuels grit, innovation, and an unrelenting commitment to fight for the very best opportunities for our students.
Under the leadership of Superintendent Thom Cochran, the district has embraced a forward-thinking approach that refuses to let geography determine possibility. Over the past several years, Johnson County Schools has secured tens of millions of dollars in competitive grant funding. Those investments have expanded student access, strengthened instructional resources, and positioned our district for sustained growth.
Despite operating in an aging facility, Johnson Central High School offers 33 in-house career pathways — one of the most comprehensive selections in Eastern Kentucky. Infrastructure has never dictated expectations for our students. Instead, it has sharpened our resolve. Leaders and faculty worked tirelessly to expand real-world opportunities inside the walls we had, not the ones we wished for.
This determination has now led to the construction of a state-of-the-art Johnson Central High School Career and Technical Center. This facility represents more than new space. It reflects a long-term commitment to workforce readiness, innovation, and access for every Golden Eagle.
Opportunity is not only about buildings. We are thrilled for our students to soar in a new high school, but opportunity is ultimately defined by what happens in classrooms every single day. Engagement and coherence matter just as much as infrastructure.
Johnson County Schools did not invest in Kagan as a program or a short-term initiative. We embraced it as a core part of who we are and how we teach. We are deeply invested in High-Quality Instructional Resources (HQIR), the adopted curriculum aligned to Kentucky standards and validated by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). Strong HQIRs ensure clarity and rigor in what we teach. Strong materials alone, however, do not ensure how students engage with the content. We needed a system that ensured engagement was built into instruction, not left to chance.
Kagan was not adopted as a program, but as a structural framework grounded in the principles of PIES. Kagan structures help ensure that each student thinks, speaks, and processes. Individual accountability is embedded and moves students from passive compliance to active participation. Structured engagement ensures that every student, not just the confident few, has voice and accountability.
The district established a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework to ensure alignment across instruction. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) function within that system as the vehicle for implementation. Each week, educators engage in Intellectual Preparation of the curriculum through unit and lesson internalization, annotating plans with intentional Kagan structures, rehearsing lessons, and anticipating misconceptions before instruction begins. These practices create coherence across classrooms and grade levels.
As district Learning Walk teams begin this work, early observations reflect instructional shifts and increased student engagement. Following the intentional alignment of Kagan structures within HQIR, reading and math proficiency trended upward. Reading proficiency increased from 50.5 percent in 2022–2023, before implementation, to 54.5 percent in 2023–2024, and then to 57.3 percent in 2024–2025. Math showed a similar upward trend, rising from 40 percent in 2022–2023 to 45.9 percent in 2023–2024 and reaching 49.7 percent in 2024–2025. The numbers confirm what classrooms suggest: when Tier 1 instruction is strengthened through structured engagement, academic growth follows.
Superintendent Thom Cochran reflected on the importance of coherence across the district:
My vision for Johnson County Schools is built on the principle of coherence—the idea that a student’s education should be a seamless, upward trajectory rather than a series of disconnected chapters. A coherent district ensures that the skills mastered today are the exact foundation needed for the next day, the next grade, and the next school setting. When we use a unified set of Kagan structures across the district, we create a common language of success.
Central Elementary Principal Michael Conley shared:
When Kagan became embedded in our PLCs through intentional unit internalization, we moved from pockets of engagement to a system where every student, in every classroom, is actively participating—strengthening Tier 1 instruction, including all learners, and driving measurable gains in both reading and math.
First-grade teacher and Kagan School Trainer Nicole Scarberry shared:
Becoming a Kagan trainer shifted my focus from using structures in my own classroom to strengthening teaching and learning across our school. I support colleagues by modeling and coaching alongside them, helping Kagan fit naturally into what teachers are already doing so learning stays engaging and meaningful.
Digital Learning Instructional Coach Sabrina O’Bryan added:
As Kagan structures have become embedded, PLC facilitation has shifted to purposeful collaboration focused on student engagement. Teachers now plan with intention during unit and lesson internalization, deliberately selecting structures that align with learning targets. Classrooms consistently reflect equitable participation and ownership of learning.
Lauren Salyer, Porter Elementary student, described the shift simply:
Learning feels different now because I feel more confident sharing my thoughts and ideas. The Kagan activities help everyone participate. We all have a job to do so that no one can hide. I like working with my classmates because it gives me a chance to use my voice and hear other ideas too.
Kagan in Action in Johnson County
Here are some pictures of Kagan in action across many buildings, classrooms, and grades in Johnson County.
Kagan Partnership Team • 800.451.8495 • partnerships@KaganOnline.com
