Executive: The Executive Office provides overall leadership on ECS' mission, goals and fundraising activities. These activities include those that are necessary for planning, coordination and overall direction of the organization, financial administration, constituent and commissioner relations, Executive Committee and Steering Committee activities, and other related activities indispensable to the organization's constituents.

Communications: ECS publishes and distributes a broad range of print and electronic materials to education policymakers. ECS products are distributed free of charge to ECS commissioners and marketed to the wider education community. Communication of state efforts to improve education includes work with major national and key education media throughout the country, contributing articles to various publications and meeting with editorial boards.

Contact: Mary Ann Strombitski
Director of Communications
303-299-3609
mstrombitski@ecs.org

Information Management and ECS Clearinghouse: The Information Clearinghouse gathers, analyzes, disseminates and serves as a repository of information on a wide range of education topics, from a variety of sources - state legislation, research studies, reports, surveys, journals and news articles. ECS provides access to this extensive collection of material through its Web site, print publications and customized, quick-turnaround searches by Clearinghouse staff.

Contact: Kathy Christie, Vice President
Knowledge Management and ECS Clearinghouse
303-299-3613
kchristie@ecs.org

Internal Business Operations: This area provides continuity and equity on ECS' policies and procedures. The division houses support services to the organization in the following areas: financial management (budget, accounting and payroll), human resources, facilities management, information systems, purchasing, and centralized services such as major Xeroxing and mail distribution.

Policy Institutes: Through this division, ECS identifies, studies and provides information about education trends and issues that are of greatest concern and interest to its constituents. Recently, ECS reorganized this division into four separate institutes: (1) National Center on Learning and Citizenship, (2) Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development, (3) School Improvement Institute, and (4) Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute. Each institute has specific goals and scopes of work for 2006:

National Center on Learning and Citizenship (NCLC):
The NCLC aims to increase support for arts in education by providing state and district education leaders with policy options; tracking current research and quality practices; creating and testing instruments to assess student citizenship competencies that align with state policies and inform state policies on citizenship education; and creating agendas for disaster preparedness and global citizenship, including identifying major players, state policies, quality practices and gaps in these efforts that ECS should fill.

Contact: Terry Pickeral, Director
National Center on Learning and Citizenship
303.299.3636
tpickeral@ecs.org

Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development: This institute deals with all issues related to postsecondary education, including community colleges, workforce development, transitions to college, and P-20 education. The institute aims to engage ECS commissioners in identifying the emerging issues that affect higher education and the economic competitiveness of their states, and collaborate with the other ECS policy institutes to maximize the level of service provided to our commissioners.

Contact: Bruce Vandal, Director
Postsecondary and Workforce Development Institute
303-299-3611
bvandal@ecs.org

School Improvement: The School Improvement Institute covers a broad range of pre-kindergarten-12 issues including accountability, early learning, finance, high schools, low-performing schools, and charter schools/vouchers. The institute seeks to provide state and district education leaders with policy options, current research and quality practices that encourage the integration of school improvement policy issues into seamless school improvement strategies and supportive state policies, and develop partnerships with other national organizations to increase our capacity.

Contact: Mimi Howard, Director
School Improvement Institute
303-299-3662
mhoward@ecs.org

Teaching Quality and Leadership: This institute addresses all aspects of teaching quality as well as the issues of leadership and governance. The institute seeks to provide state policymakers and education leaders with information of value, relevance and utility to advance the quality of teaching and education leadership through the exploration, analysis and dissemination of exemplary research, model policy and innovative practice.

Contact: Tricia Coulter, Director
Teaching Quality and Leadership Institute
303.299.3657
tcoulter@ecs.org