Almost immediately after he was named Commissioner of Education in March 2011, Stephen Bowen traveled to school districts across Maine and spoke to students, teachers, school administrators and community members about what they saw as the challenges confronting Maine's schools and what role they saw for the Maine Department of Education in confronting those challenges. This document begins with a description of Commissioner Bowen's response to what he heard with regard to the direction Maine needs to take in order to realize the vision of its people being among the best educated in the world, and all its students graduating prepared to succeed in college, careers and civic life. The Commissioner and Department staff reviewed feedback from the tour of Maine schools, and organized that feedback into five core priority areas. These priority areas, their subcategories, specific goals, objectives and action steps are described herein.