Examining open government at the education department

On his first day in office, President Obama signed the Memorandum for Transparency and Open Government, and a year later, in December 2009, issued the Open Government Directive for federal agencies. The president's main purposes are to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration and to strengthen democracy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government. The Department of Education has answered this charge by developing its own plan and implementing a number of innovative efforts to satisfy the first set of purposes. Transparency creates the openness and connection to the people and stakeholders that is necessary for the government to respond to its constituents. But we need to create transparency with a purpose, which feeds into and helps create other dimensions of accountability. Agencies should use transparency efforts to strengthen internal accountability as well. The department should define performance measures for transparency efforts that are outcome-based and indicate that the defined needs are being met.