1. A step by step participation guide for
schools and districts
Enable, engage and empower the voices of your
stakeholders
Speak Up 2014

2. Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014
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?
 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 2014

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 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 2014
1. What is Speak Up?

5.  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.
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014
1. What is Speak Up?

6. Empowering authentic voices – since 2003:
 2.9 million K-12 students
 258,500 teachers and librarians
 200,100 parents
 24,500 school and district leaders
 30,000 K-12 schools – from all 50 states, DC, American
military base schools, Canada, Mexico, Australia, int’l
schools . . .
3.4 million respondents
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014
1. What is Speak Up? By the numbers…

7. 2. 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 2014

8. 2. 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 2014

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
 Common Core Standards
 Emerging Technologies in the Classroom
 Mobile Devices & BYOD, Online and Blended Learning, Digital
Content, E-textbooks, Games, Social Media Tools and
Applications
 Designing the 21st Century School
This year’s question themes
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

10. 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 2014
2. Why should we participate in Speak Up this year?

11. Our Speak Up results are indispensable in technology planning in
our school district and give us data to support innovation.
Alabama
AdministratorFor 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
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

12. 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 2014

13. What is the open period for online surveys?
Online surveys are open:
October 6th
through
December 19th
Registration Now open
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

14. 3. 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 2015. All surveys, all
responses including the open-ended narrative responses.
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

15. 1. Schools & districts register to participate
2. Pick a password for students to use to access online
surveys
3. Promote to parents and staff – we provide materials
4. Provide way for students to take online surveys
5. We provide you with a weekly survey count
6. Schools & districts get access to local survey results +
national data for benchmarks in early February
4. How do we participate in Speak Up this year?
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

16. 5. 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
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

17. 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
Lisa Chu – Program Support Coordinator
949-609-4660 x11
lchu@tomorrow.org
Julie Evans – CEO
949-609-4660 x15
jevans@tomorrow.org
Participation Guide for
Speak Up 2014

18. 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 Female Student – Roseville, MS
This is why you should participate in Speak Up this year!

19. Thank you for your interest in
Speak Up 2014, a national
initiative of Project Tomorrow.
Learn more at
www.tomorrow.org/speakup