Speak Up FAQs
What is Speak Up?
Speak Up is an annual national research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow. The Speak Up data represents the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered stakeholder input on education, technology, 21st century skills, schools of the future and science instruction. Education, business, and policy leaders report using the data regularly to inform federal, state, and local education programs.
When is Speak Up open?
Speak Up 2009 will be open October 19th - December 23, 2009. Results will be available to participating schools and districts in February 2010.
Why should I get involved?
Any school, district or organization that serves K-12 students may participate in Speak Up. As a Speak Up participant you are part of a growing movement that values and uses their stakeholders’ opinions to inform K-12 educational decisions. Participating in Speak Up:
- Provides educators the opportunity to gather information from their students, teachers, administrators, and parents about key educational topics, free of charge.
- Ensures that the views of students, parents, and educators are included in the dialogue about K-12 science, technology and math education.
- Engages your stakeholders in your strategic planning, budgeting, or decision-making processes
How do I get my students involved?
Through the lesson plans, students are introduced to the concept of contributing to local change and a national dialog by voicing their opinions about their education. Use the lessons to encourage students to reflect on their use of technology both in and out of school, and how they learn math, science, and 21st century skills.
Is there a cost to participate?
Anyone can participate in Speak Up free of charge. Participating schools and districts can view their data against benchmark national results, online, free-of-charge beginning in February 2010.
How do I promote Speak Up?
Try using the resources we have created for Speak Up in the left tool bar! They include: Speak Up How-to Guides for educators, parents, and superintendents, flyers for posting at your school, lesson plans for teachers, previews of the surveys, a banner to place on your website, sample emails for communicating with other educators, and more. Click here for more ideas.
Technical Support:
I’m not receiving weekly participation emails. How do I ensure I will receive Speak Up notification emails?
Please contact your district tech coordinator and ask them to add tomorrow.org to your district’s safe list/white list. Also be sure to check your spam folder and add speakup@tomorrow.org to your contacts list to ensure you continue to receive emails.
Why am I receiving multiple participation emails? It is possible that when you registered two (or more) records were created with you as the School Contact. If you suspect this may have happened, contact the Speak Up team at speakup@tomorrow.org and we can collapse your records into one. Don’t worry you won’t lose any data by collapsing records.