A step by step participation guide for schools and districts Speak Up 2012 A step by step participation guide for schools and districts Enable, engage and empower the voices of your stakeholders

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What is Speak Up? Why should we participate in Speak Up this year? What benefits will we receive? How do we participate? What should be our goal for participation? Who do we call if we need help?

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What is Speak Up? Speak Up is a national research project conducted through online surveys and focus groups. 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 2012 What is Speak Up? 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 an initiative of Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit group that used to be known as NetDay. It is Project Tomorrow’s mission to provide Speak Up as a service to schools and districts. Speak Up is not like any other survey process or research project because every participating school and district gets back all of the locally collected data from all stakeholders. There is no fee to take the online surveys or to get back the local data. There is no limit on the number of surveys that can be submitted.

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What is Speak Up? Project Tomorrow presents the national data each spring with Congress, the US Department of Education, other federal agencies, thinktanks 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 online surveys this year for students (grade appropriate surveys for students K-12), teachers, school site administrators, librarian media specialists, district office administrators and parents. The surveys take about 15-20 minutes to complete and all data is 100% confidential.

2.6 million respondents Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What is Speak Up? By the numbers ….. Empowering authentic voices – since 2003: 2.2 million K-12 students 218,500 teachers and librarians 168,000 parents 20,000 school and district leaders 30,000 K-12 schools – from all 50 states, DC, American military base schools, Canada, Mexico, Australia, int’l schools . . . 2.6 million respondents

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 Why should we participate in Speak Up this year? 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 2012 Why should we participate in Speak Up this year? 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 2012 This year’s question themes 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 Common Core Standards (New!) Emerging Technologies in the Classroom Mobile Devices & BYOD, Online Learning, Digital Content, E-textbooks, Games, Social Media Tools and Applications Designing the 21st Century School

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 Why should we participate in Speak Up this year? What other education leaders say about the value of Speak Up We have a better understanding of what’s important to our stakeholders (71%) We now have a mechanism to empower students to voice their opinions about school (70%) Our technology initiatives are more closely aligned to students’ expectations and needs (68%) The data provides meaningful input into our district planning process (66%) Our teacher PD is more closely aligned to the expectations and needs of our teachers (54%) We have created or revised our technology plan based upon the data (51%)

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 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 The staff at Conway Middle 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 © Project Tomorrow 2010

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 78% of students would like to be more involved in local education decisions Have class discussions Give input through Speak Up and other surveys Share ideas online with other students Be part of a club that researches problems & presents ideas Be part of a student advisory group for the principal Set up a blog and wiki to share ideas Make presentations to the school board *Taken from Speak Up 2010 Data

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What is the open period for online surveys? Online surveys are open: October 3rd through December 14th Registration Now open

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What benefits will we receive? During the Speak Up process, our school/district will receive a weekly email with the up to date participation numbers by school and district. The Project Tomorrow website includes lesson plans, promotional materials, logos and banners, FAQs and sample surveys we can review in advance. The Project Tomorrow team has dedicated staff to help schools and districts participate in Speak Up. Most importantly, every participating school & district gets a free online report with all of their localized data plus the national data for benchmarking purposes – in February 2013. All surveys, all responses including the open-ended narrative responses.

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 How do we participate in Speak Up this year? Schools & districts register to participate Pick a password for stakeholders to use to access online surveys Promote to parents and staff – we provide materials Provide way for students to take online surveys We provide you with a weekly survey count Schools & districts get access to local survey results + national data for benchmarks in early February Have a voice in state and national policy

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 What should be our participation goals? 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 to identify that goal. Or a percentage of your teaching staff. 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 with your stakeholders to show real value and the import of the survey participation. Step 5: Promote and encourage participation. Use incentives to engage your schools and stakeholder audiences!

Participation Guide for Speak Up 2012 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 x12 jhostert@tomorrow.org Julie Evans – CEO 949-609-4660 x15 jevans@tomorrow.org

12th Grade Girl – Roseville MS Why is Speak Up important? Why is it that our teachers don’t understand that when they limit our technology use, they are limiting our future? 12th Grade Girl – Roseville MS This is why you should participate in Speak Up this year!

Learn more at www.tomorrow.org/speakup Thank you for your interest in Speak Up 2012, a national initiative of Project Tomorrow. Learn more at www.tomorrow.org/speakup