Speak Up 2008

Subject: Your invitation to participate in Speak Up 2008



Hello:

Speak Up about 21st Century Education!


With a new President and a new Congress in Washington and many new Governors around the country, this is a critically important time for you, your students, and their parents to have a voice in the new education policies, programs, and funding.

I would like to personally invite your school or district to be part of the Speak Up online research project and have your voices heard on the future of American education.

Each fall Project Tomorrow, the nation's leading nonprofit group supporting student voices in education, facilitates the national Speak Up project to collect and report on the authentic, unfiltered viewpoints of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and administrators. We present the national data findings to Congress and the US Department of Education each Spring, and all participating schools and districts get access to their own data for planning and budgeting purposes.

Since fall 2003, over 1.2 million students, teachers, parents, and administrators have participated in the annual Speak Up surveys and the data findings regularly impact federal, state, and local policies, programs, and funding for education. We hope that you will join this national project and provide input in shaping a new direction for American education in the 21st century.

The Speak Up 2008 online surveys are now open for input. To learn more about how your school can participate in Speak Up, click here or contact Amanda Wortman at speakup@tomorrow.org, 949-609-4660 x12.


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Fast Facts on Speak Up 2008

Speak Up is conducted 100% through online surveys which take about 15 minutes to complete.
Grade appropriate surveys are available for students in grades K-12, teachers, parents, school and district administrators, and school board members.
Parent survey is available in English and Spanish.
All survey data collected is 100% confidential.
Every school and district in the United States is eligible to participate -- there is no fee for participation or to get your own data back.
Surveys are open now until December 19, 2008. You will get your own data back in early February in time to use for budgeting and planning for the next school year.
Check out this year's surveys here. Question themes include:
- Teaching and Learning with technology
- Web 2.0 use at school and outside of school
- 21st century skills - information and media literacy
- Digital Content - defining the ultimate online textbook
- Broadband Access and Policy - Home-to-School communications
- Career Preparation and Interest Development
- Internet Safety and Obstacles to technology use at school
Click here to activate your registration now!



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How to Get Started with Speak Up

The Speak Up website offers convenient tools for helping make Speak Up a big success in your school or district. You can find Quick Tips for Educators, flyers for posting at your school, sample emails for communicating with other educators and parents, lesson plans, previews of the survey and more.

Here are a couple of steps to get started:

Add the Speak Up Logo to your website and link to the Speak Up Survey.
Post Speak Up as an event on your school portal, parent loop or learning management system.
Distribute the Speak Up Flyer at your school.
Share information about Speak Up with your principals, district administrators, and school board members.
Send regular emails to your teachers, administrators and parents about participating in Speak Up.
Have a competition within your district for the greatest number of surveys submitted -- we will update you weekly on your participation numbers.
Start planning now for how you are going to use your Speak Up data in February: to write a grant, to revise your technology plan, to inform new expenditures, as input for teacher training programs, etc.

All of this information can easily be found on our website! Click on the tips & techniques link below to get started.

Take a look at the tools to help promote Speak Up 2008.



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Special thanks to our Speak Up 2008 sponsors and partners!
Speak Up would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors and outreach assistance from our nonprofit partners. Many thanks to our Speak Up 2008 sponsors: CDW-G, SMART Technologies, PASCO scientific, Blackboard, Inc., William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 1105 Media-Education Group and Wimba.

Also, we extend a special thanks to our National Outreach Partners – SETDA, CoSN and NSBA for their wonderful support.
Learn more about our sponsors and partners



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It's easy to get started, visit the Speak Up website to activate your registration today! If you have any questions, please contact us at speakup@tomorrow.org

Sincerely,

Laurie

Laurie Smith
Director, Research & Evaluation
Project Tomorrow
http://www.tomorrow.org


The mission of Project Tomorrow is to promote and support the innovative, research-based uses of science, math and technology resources to develop critical thinking, problem solving and creativity in all K-12 students. Project Tomorrow is a national education nonprofit organization.