October 30, 2012
Dear SRVUSD community,
Speak Up is the annual research project conducted by Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit group that collects and reports on the views of K-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents on 21st century education and technology. Over 2.6 million students, educators and parents have shared their views regarding the use of educational technology through the Speak Up surveys. The purpose of this message is to encourage you to participate in this extremely valuable survey.
Why participate in Speak Up this year?
We’ve made great strides at our schools throughout SRVUSD with our 1:1 and 21st Century Classroom initiatives. This year, as a new Superintendent, and with a new Technology Director and many new administrators and teachers, we are especially interested in continuing to gather the ideas and opinions of our students, teachers, administrators and parents. Responses to this survey will help us make plans to sustain and expand our efforts to enhance teaching and learning with technology-infused classrooms and curricula.
Speak Up provides a unique way for our stakeholders to have an impact not only on our district technology plans, but also to influence state level initiatives and federal policies and programs. Schools and the District will have access to the results in February. These results will be shared with parents and the community. There is no cost to the district or schools to participate and all individual survey data collected is 100% confidential.
Each spring, Project Tomorrow also shares the collective national Speak Up findings with the U.S. Congress, Department of Education, other federal agencies and policy research groups and associations. Last year over 6,541 schools and 1,340 districts participated. We are eager to be a part of this national movement to include more authentic stakeholder views in education discussions!
How can you and your school community participate in Speak Up?
The Speak Up online surveys are open for input now to December 14, 2012. There are separate Speak Up surveys for students (grade level appropriate K-12), teachers, district administrators, principals, librarians and parents. There will also be a link on the district website, and parents and students will be encouraged to participate as well. All of the Speak Up surveys are online and accessible 24/7 from any Internet connected computer. Project Tomorrow has already registered our schools to participate, all you have to do is go online and take the 20 minute survey at: http://www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2012/using the password srvusd. Visit the following website for more details on Speak Up: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup.
For more information, please contact Laurel Krsek, SRVUSD Technology Director; lkrsek@srvusd.net
Thank you for your consideration!
