Parents’ Frequently Asked Questions

What is Speak Up?
The Speak Up National Research Project, collects and reports the views of K-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents the use of technology for learning. Since 2003, over 2.2 million students, educators and parents have shared their views through the Speak Up surveys, and these important stakeholder ideas influence local, state and federal policies and programs every year.

Why should I participate?
Speak Up is the first survey designed to help parents share their ideas directly with schools and national policymakers. As key stakeholders, Speak Up provides parents with a mechanism for expressing their views to the administrators at their child(ren)’s school and district about key issues impacting their child(ren)'s education. Since 2003, Speak Up has collected and shared the views of over 2.2 million students, teachers, and parents from all 50 states, as well as internationally. By participating in Speak Up, parents are expressing their views to a wider audience of local, state, and national policy makers as well as the business community—and contributing to the national dialog about science, technology, and preparing students for the 21st century workforce.

When is Speak Up open?
Speak Up 2011 will be open October 10th – December 23rd, 2011. Results will be available to participating schools and districts in February 2012.

How long does it take to complete the survey?
The parent survey consists of about 25 multiple-choice questions and one open ended question at the end of the survey. The survey is administered online and should take you about 20 minutes to complete. Additionally we ask several demographic questions that are optional; we use these responses during our data analysis to provide additional context to our national data findings.

Where do I go to take the survey?
To take the survey please visit: http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2011/. The survey is open for input 24/7 from October 10th – December 23rd.

What are the step-by-step instructions to take the survey?
People often ask us for the specific step-by-step directions they should use when taking the Speak Up survey. Below we have provided instructions you can use to navigate through the process:
- Parent Instructions

What if I have children that attend different schools in the district?
For expediency, when taking the survey we recommend that you take the survey only once for a single school. You will have the opportunity to select the grade levels of your children in survey and we will summarize the results into the totals for the selected school, the district and national responses. If you prefer, you also have the option to take the survey multiple times for each of the schools your children may attend.

I’d like to get my child’s school involved, how do I do that?
Any public or private school can register to participate in Speak Up. If you would like to encourage the administrators at your child(ren)’s school to participate to they can gain online access to their Speak Up reports, we encourage you to download and share this two-page introduction letter which describes how they can register the school and participate in Speak Up.

How do I retrieve my Speak Up password?
As a parent you are not required to enter in a survey password “secret word” to take the survey. To be included in your child(ren)’s district’s data please make sure to select your child(ren)’s school to access the survey through. If your child(ren)’s school is not listed, you may opt to take the survey without selecting a school by pressing the “click here” button above the list of schools (Please note, your responses will be included in the national data set only, if you select this option).

I didn’t finish the survey, can I retrieve it?
The Speak Up surveys are designed to be completed in one 20+ minute online session. We have designed the survey to automatically save your answers, each time that you click the RED arrow next button on the bottom of each page. Unfortunately, once you exit the survey you will not be able to log back in to your original survey session.

If you would like to complete the survey, you can: 1). Start a new survey and click on the next button until you reach the question that you want to start answering or 2). Request that we delete the survey so that you can resubmit it. If you would like your survey deleted, send us an email with the survey number (which can be found on the top left hand side of the screen in red, the name of your school and state).