![[OERI BULLETIN - Spring 1996]](/icons/prev.gif){kind=icon}
"Hello. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. May I help you?" This is the reinvigorated voice of OERI. As part of the general reinvention of the Department of Education, renewed emphasis has been given to customer service. Traditionally, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) has provided most of its services to the general public through the library, the Education Information Branch, and the many statisticians and researchers who respond to specific inquiries. But the focus on improving customer service has given a new workface to the old workforce.
Through its Customer Service Standards Team, the Department has issued "A Commitment to Our Learners," with the learner of any age being the ultimate customer. The Department seeks to improve customer service in three broad ways:
OERI is building on the Department's vision with a customer service plan that plays up OERI's unique role in U.S. education. In 1867, the Congress and the American people recognized the need for a coordinating, federal presence in education and the Office (now the Department) of Education was created to collect education statistics. Since then, the Department has also been responsible for supporting rigorous and objective education research. The job of collecting statistics and research currently falls with OERI. The primary customers for OERI, therefore, are all organizations and individuals who can use educational research and statistics to improve education. These customers include families, teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards, PTA's, and state departments of education. Our partners in this effort are independent researchers and research centers and universities, as well as states, education laboratories, and other contractors and grantees that OERI either supports or cosponsors. The ultimate beneficiaries of OERI customer service efforts are the learners of all ages.
What does this mean for you? It means that OERI will not simply wait for the phone to ring. We may be calling on you. The work will be participatory, meaning that each of the customer groups and partners will be involved in telling us what the needs of the public are. This will be done through customer surveys, focus groups, outcome and impact evaluations, organization evaluations, assessment indicators, and benchmarks.
The core functions of OERI will be programs (statistical, research, development, and dissemination); services (outreach to the public, information dissemination, reference, and coordination); and products (printed research and statistical reports, subject friendly materials for families and schools, online accessible material, video tapes, and CD-ROMS).
OERI's main goal is to produce work that is relevant, accessible, and useful. A major investment of resources will be made in talking and listening to the public to fulfill the responsibilities of a true public service agency. We will also seek to strengthen the teaching profession by shedding light on new approaches to teacher preparation and staff development and by looking at technology as a powerful component of education delivery, improvement, and reform.
In serving customers, OERI will diligently address equity and excellence issues for all students into the next 10 to 20 years and beyond. In looking at the needs for the future, OERI will also strive to support the whole learner by conducting research on how services provided outside the classroom, such as health or childcare services, can be integrated with education. Schools would then be able to work in tandem with community organizations and agencies to manage the effects of poverty, violence, or family disruption that impact on how well a student does in school.
These goals are lofty, but they are based on what we have learned so far from your telephone calls, letters, and responses to requests for public comment. This is only the beginning, however. We will keep each other posted.
[New Research Standards Issued]