Participation and introduction guide for schools and districts

1. Participation and introduction guide
for schools and districts
Enable, engage and empower the voices of your
stakeholders
Speak Up

2. Participation Guide for
Speak Up
1.What is Speak Up?
2.Why should we participate in Speak Up
this year?
3.What benefits will we receive?
4.How do we participate?
5.What should be our goal for participation?
6.Who do we call if we need help?

3. 1. What is Speak Up?
• The Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning, a national initiative
of Project Tomorrow, is both a national research project and a free
service to schools and districts everywhere.
• Speak Up has three goals:
➢To collect and report on the authentic, unfiltered views and
ideas of K-12 students, educators and parents so as to inform
national discussions on the use of technology in education.
➢To provide school, district and state leaders with similar local
or regional data from stakeholders to inform their policies,
programs and funding.
➢To demonstrate to the education stakeholders, most notably
students, that their voices are important in discussions about
education.
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

4. • Speak Up is facilitated exclusively through schools and districts.
Schools and districts register to participate to ensure data
confidentiality. All schools and districts are eligible to
participate.
• Speak Up is unlike other surveys or research projects because
every participating school and district gets back all of the locally
collected data from all stakeholders.
• There is no fee for participation. There is no limit on the number
of surveys that can be submitted.
• All data collected is 100% confidential.
Participation Guide for
Speak Up
1. What is Speak Up?

5. • Project Tomorrow shares the national-level data with Congress,
the US Department of Education, other federal agencies, think
tanks and research organizations and education associations.
• Project Tomorrow is not in the “gotcha business.” We do not
compare schools or districts, nor do we share local data with
anyone but the participating schools and districts.
• Speak Up includes surveys for K-12 students, teachers, school
administrators, librarian media specialists, district
administrators, parents and community members.
• The surveys take about 15-20 minutes to complete.
Participation Guide for
Speak Up
1. What is Speak Up?

6. Participation Guide for
Speak Up
1. What is Speak Up? 2016 stats…
Since 2003, more than 5 million
Speak Up surveys have been collected!

7. 2. Why should we participate?
▪ Three big reasons
▪ This year’s question themes
▪ What other education leaders say
about the value of Speak Up
▪ Open period for online surveys
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

8. 2. Why should we participate?
Three Big Reasons:
Access the ideas of your stakeholders – especially students
and parents whose views are often difficult to collect. Speak
Up is the unbiased, 3rd party guardian of these views.
Respondents are more candid with us - we are not the district,
state, or a vendor.
No need to write your own surveys – we are the experts in how
to ask audience-specific questions plus we provide you with the
national data for benchmarking anyway. Speak Up is the most
cost effective way to engage your community.
Ensure that the voices of your stakeholders are being heard –
in Washington DC and your state capitol. Be part of a solution!
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

9. ▪ Learning & Teaching with Technology
▪ Math Instruction / Career Interests in STEM and Teaching
▪ Professional Development / Teacher Preparation
▪ Internet Safety
▪ Administrators’ Challenges / Parents’ Concerns
▪ Ed Tech Funding
▪ Online Assessments
▪ Mobile Devices & BYOD
▪ Online and Blended Learning
▪ Digital Content, E-textbooks & Games
▪ Augmented & Virtual Reality
Speak Up Themes
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

10. What other education leaders say about the value of Speak Up
• We have a better understanding of what’s important to our
stakeholders
• We now have a mechanism to empower students to voice their
opinions about school
• Our technology initiatives are more closely aligned to students’
expectations and needs
• The data provides meaningful input into our district planning process
• Our teacher PD is more closely aligned to the expectations and needs
of our teachers
• We have created or revised our technology plan based upon the data
Participation Guide for
Speak Up
2. Why should we participate?

11. “Our Speak Up results are indispensable in technology planning in our
school district and give us data to support innovation.”
Alabama Administrator
“For students, it gives them a chance to participate in a public policy
conversation and allows their voices to be heard. For teachers, it provides a
great conversation starter to better understand their students. For school
administrators and district leaders it provides important information for
future planning. ” Texas Administrator
“Our staff has used the results to shape their school improvement plans,
their Title I school plan and to develop a strategic school technology plan.
They have used the results to develop and deliver instruction, professional
development and community programs to support, promote and increase
access to technology.”
North Carolina Administrator
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

12. 3. What benefits will we receive?
• Free online reports with all of your localized data plus the
national data for benchmarking purposes (in February).
Receive all surveys, all responses including the open-ended
narrative responses.
• Weekly email with up-to-date participation numbers by
school and district and promotional tips
• Lesson plans, promotional materials, logos and banners,
FAQs and sample surveys
• Dedicated staff to help schools and districts participate
• Online preliminary reports, beginning in November
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

13. • Schools & districts register to participate (for free)
• Pick a password for students to use to access their
online surveys
• Promote to parents and staff – we provide materials
• Provide way for students to take online surveys
• Review weekly survey counts
• Schools & districts get access to local survey results +
national data for benchmarks in early February
• Plan time to review your data!
4. How do we participate?
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

14. 4. How do we participate?
Online surveys are open:
October through January
Registration now open:
www.tomorrow.org/speakup
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

15. 5. What should be our goal?
Step 1: Decide the audiences to poll with the Speak Up surveys
Step 2: Decide what schools/classes you want to participate – or
ALL
Step 3: Identify your participation goal per school or per district.
One common way to do that is to use a percentage of your current
student population (or staff) to identify that goal.
Ex: District student population = 10,000
Speak Up Goal of 25% = 2,500 students
Step 4: Determine how you are going to use our Speak Up data in
the spring and communicate those usage objectives.
Step 5: Promote and encourage participation. Use incentives to
engage your schools and stakeholder audiences!
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

16. 6. Who do we call if we need help?
Your Project Tomorrow team is available to help you anytime.
Please call or email us if you have any questions or need ideas to
support your participation.
Jenny Hostert – Speak Up Operations Manager
949-609-4660 x17
jhostert@tomorrow.org
Julie Evans – CEO
949-609-4660 x15
jevans@tomorrow.org
Participation Guide for
Speak Up

17. Thank you for your interest in
Speak Up, a national initiative of
Project Tomorrow.
Learn more at
www.tomorrow.org/speakup