As a precursor to this annual report, in February 2018, the Department issued its "U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years [FY] 2018-22" ("Strategic Plan") (see ED586968). The "Strategic Plan" establishes four broad, overarching goals--one goal each in the areas of K-12 education, postsecondary education and training, data quality and accessibility, and the effectiveness and accountability of the Department. Each goal, in turn, has within it separate strategic objectives that state a specific manner in which the Department will accomplish the goal. This year's annual report, the "FY 2020 Annual Performance Report," summarizes the results of the Department's third year executing its "Strategic Plan." As shown in this report, the Department made significant strides on several fronts--proposing a new initiative to promote education freedom for students and families, encouraging students and families to rethink the traditional American education model to consider a variety of postsecondary options, modernizing Federal Student Aid's (FSA's) infrastructure to improve the ways FSA connects with students throughout their time in higher education and throughout the full life of their student loan payments, helping states and school districts comply with recent federal laws, making the Department's data more transparent and available for the public, and reorganizing the Department to make its corporate structure more efficient to better respond to current needs. Using the standards it set for itself--that is, the set of 54 measures with annual targets that gauge the Department's performance in FY 2020, the Department met its targets for 37 measures (68.5 percent). The Department did not meet its targets for 17 of the 54 measures (31.5 percent). Accomplishing the goals of the Strategic Plan is about much more than meeting targets for measures, encompassing a wide array of activities. This report discusses the accomplishments of the Department during FY 2020 as well as the challenges encountered. [For the "U.S. Department of Education FY 2019 Annual Performance Report and FY 2021 Annual Performance Plan," see ED607892.]