State Education Agency Communications Process: Benchmark and Best Practices Project. Benchmark and Best Practices Project. Issue No. 01

The role of state education agencies (SEAs) has shifted significantly from low-profile, compliance activities like managing federal grants to engaging in more complex and politically charged tasks like setting curriculum standards, developing accountability systems, and creating new teacher evaluation systems. The move from compliance-monitoring to leading large-scale education change is not only more complex, it also has shined a brighter spotlight on SEAs and their ability to improve student outcomes. Communication is a critical component to help SEAs create system-wide clarity and coherence, and to proactively manage messages to gain stakeholder support. This report explains the major processes associated with strategic communication and details the communication approaches employed by five SEAs to support the adoption of new state standards, a reform that has recently become politically charged by the suggestion that the Common Core state standards represent government overreach. Because the debate has little to do with the actual content or purpose of the standards--to set a common bar that will better prepare students for college and careers--and more about political perspectives, SEAs find they must take extreme care with their communications and approach to developing, adopting, and implementing new standards. The following are appended: (1) Kansas' Positive Communication Sample; (2) Idaho Myths and Factors for External Stakeholders; (3) Kansas Myths and Facts External Communication; (4) Kentucky's Commissioner's Blog; (5) Arkansas SEA Video Using Teacher Voice; and (6) Arkansas SEA Using Student Voice in Common Core Video.