Section 180 of Title 16 requires the State Board of Education (Board) to "adopt through a public process a statewide strategic education plan to describe how the agency will help school boards to improve student performance." The Vermont State Board of Education and Commissioner Richard H. Cate drafted a plan that was adopted by the Board at its meeting on June 9, 2004. The five-year plan is expressed in five goals which are based on the respective Board and department roles and responsibilities: (1) Support high-quality, innovative instruction to improve student achievement; (2) Provide and promote high-quality educational leadership; (3) Promote safe and positive learning environments; (4) Build department capacity to best support external needs; and (5) Practice and promote effective use of all resources. The Strategic Plan includes objectives and strategies that support each goal. Some of these are the responsibility of the commissioner and the department; others are the responsibility of the Board. During its June 2004 retreat, the Board reviewed all of the strategies and selected the following six to be included in its work plan for the 2004-05 fiscal year. The prefix designations (e.g. I.A.4.) refer to the goal, objective and strategy designations that appear in the Strategic Plan (e.g. Goal I, Objective A, Strategy 4). Each objective has indicators, which are measurable results that reflect the success of the objective. Several of the indicators are percentages, and therefore are expected to increase or decrease as a desired result.