Office of Communications and Outreach
Functional Statements > Office of Communications and Outreach
B. External Affairs and Outreach Services
The immediate office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Outreach Services is responsible for the outreach to parents and teachers, advocacy groups, think tanks, associations, foundations, and the business community, as well as for special-focus outreach, including Hispanic, African American, the disabled community, Native American, Asian and other populations, with special emphasis on under-served groups. The immediate office conducts outreach to the corporate community by promoting business and community partnerships for learning—providing information and resources to educators, business and community members who are interested in establishing and accelerating partnerships. The office helps businesses, foundations, and non-government associations connect their resources with education officials who are working to promote and support improvement in education.
The Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs and Outreach Services is also responsible for:
Intergovernmental Affairs (IA) is responsible for outreach to State and local elected officials and the organizations that represent them, as well as to other Federal agencies. This team's primary function is to communicate information about the Department's initiatives, policies, and programs to State and local elected officials as well as to other Federal agencies, and to build partnerships to improve education for all children, including partnerships to leverage increased support for high academic standards and educational excellence. The IA office oversees and coordinates all aspects of the State and local intergovernmental operations; develops strategy and outreach activities for the continued implementation of the Department's initiatives, as it relates to government groups to develop and implement education related initiatives; and develops outreach strategy with other government agencies for the purpose of promoting initiatives. Further, the IA office serves as the Department's principal policy advisor on interagency affairs, and coordinates Federal interagency outreach activities. Through interagency agreements and commitments, the component facilitates collaboration among Federal agencies to address education issues.
Educational Partnerships and Family Involvement
The Educational Partnerships and Family Involvement Unit develops and implements long- and short-term strategies to engage a variety of types of organizations in the Department's school-improvement agenda, with specific emphasis on parent and family involvement activities. The unit initiates and maintains liaison with faith-based, community, business, and education groups on long-term projects to encourage them to work in partnership with the Department on a range of education issues. In support of this activity, the unit produces written, electronic, and web-based information products, convenes meetings, represents the Department at various organizations' conferences and events, and maintains an extensive database of contact information on partner organizations. These organizations include national, state, local and grassroots groups.
It is the mission of the Washington-based Regional Services team to develop and direct the communications and outreach initiatives conducted by the Secretary's Regional Representatives with key elected officials and policy constituencies at the state and local levels. Management of these initiatives includes the development of strategies and outreach opportunities; oversight of the gathering of sensitive information regarding state activity on education policy, and sharing timely information about federal law, regulation, policy and guidance.
Secretary's Regional Representatives
It is the mission of each Secretary's Regional Representative, located in offices around the country, to establish and maintain open and effective working relationships with elected officials and policy constituencies at the state and local levels. Each individual SRR and their deputy is responsible for the following:
- Promoting the major goals of the Secretary, serving as the Secretary's chief regional spokesperson.
- Conveying to all state and local officials with policymaking authority the policies, programs and initiatives of the Secretary and the Department including implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act.
- Providing leadership in the development of partnerships with the private sector to work together on common interest and goals in achieving excellence in education for all children.
- Serving as a coordinator in consultation with Intergovernmental Affairs for all intergovernmental, interagency, interoffice, congressional and public affairs activities within their region.
- Serving as a principle point of contact for state and local elected officials; state and local education officials; public and private education agencies; schools, colleges and universities; and organizations with an interest in the success of public education.
- Developing a collaborative relationship with other Departmental components in the regional offices.
- Maintaining comprehensive current knowledge of all education issues in the region, to serve as an early warning system for potential problems; ensuring that the Secretary, through channels, is notified in advance of any real or potential issues in order to prevent or minimize problems. Proactively establishing and maintaining a productive network of contacts with schools, teachers, parents, education groups, businesses, state and local governments, etc., to ensure the most up to date information.
 |
||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||
| |
||||||||||||
