The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) has begun the process of developing a new Community Strategic Plan (CSP) for 2012-2016, which will be critical in refining the mission, vision, guiding principles, goals, and initiatives that DoDEA will undertake to deliver a high quality, student-centered education.

An important part of the process of developing a new CSP, DoDEA is gathering information from parents, students, teachers, principals, and staff members regarding their thoughts and opinions about the education students are receiving and improvements. Some information has already been gathered from interviews that have been conducted with more than 75 stakeholders , including teachers, principals, counselors, administrators, teacher association representatives, headquarters staff, and non-profit partners. The interviews were conducted at scheduled DoDEA leadership and administrator conferences and via telephone to minimize cost and maximize efficiency.

DoDEA is interested in the thoughts and opinions of not only parents, teachers, military leadership, and individuals directly impacted by DoDEA schools, but of those that attend non-DoDEA schools and serve military families and their children. Topics of interest to DoDEA are the consistency of communication from schools and to identify possible strategies to improve support for students and families through transitions and how to support these students, as well as feedback on the curriculum, instruction and assessment in DoDEA schools. The site to provide feedback is http://cspfeedback.dodea.edu/.

Recognizing the need to reach out to the field, teachers and principals have constituted the largest proportion of interviews, and will constitute the largest representation on the CSP Steering Committee, which is a committee tasked to develop the CSP. The Steering Committee will also be comprised of representatives from each of the three DoDEA areas, the Services, the Joint Chief of Staff, the office of Military Community & Family Policy, the U.S. Department of Education, and a handful of key DoDEA headquarters staff and will meet in Arlington, VA the last week in September. All of the information obtained from DoDEA stakeholders will help ensure the new CSP is aligned with the Department of Defense's overall strategic goals and objectives related to education.

DoDEA is committed to supporting military families and improving the academic achievement of their children in this global environment. Children of military families face unique challenges, not the least of which is the number of transitions they undergo during their school years, moving on average from six to nine times. It is our shared responsibility to do all we can to support the social, emotional, and academic well-being of these children by providing a high quality education.