Net Day Speak Up 2008

Speak Up is an annual national research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow. The purpose of the project is to:

Collect and report the unfiltered feedback from students, parents, admins, and teachers on key educational issues.
Use the data to stimulate local conversations.
Raise national awareness about the importance of including the viewpoints of students, parents, and teachers in the education dialogue. Since inception, over 1.2 million students, educators, and parents have shared their ideas through Speak Up.

You can too. Participate in Speak Up 2008 until December 19, 2008.

Quantitative survey results are available to participating schools and districts, online, free-of-charge, so that they can use the data for planning and community discussion. National findings are released through a variety of venues, including: a Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC, national and regional conferences, e-mail distribution, Project Tomorrow website, and our Speak Up partners. Local, state and national stakeholders report using Speak Up data to inform their new programs and policies.

All districts and schools, in the current NCES database, are automatically pre-registered to participate in Speak Up. To participate in the survey and obtain free, online access to your school or district’s aggregated results, your registration must be activated.

Speak Up Surveys submitted as of 11/6: 18,605 Students, 2,827 Teachers, 1,929 Parents, 326 School Leaders.

This last portion reminded me of what SLA Principal Chris Lehmann stated during his presentation at Ignite Philly, "Good data costs more than we are willing to spend". What better reason to participate in the survey? For three years I have requested anyone to register the Richmond County School System. This year they did with a same day response in email. No "Yeah but"s or "No"s, just a quick email response stating it is done and the magic word. So if your school district isn't registered...parents can still take the survey, but continue to contact your school board members, the IT and Ed Techies, so the voices of the students, teachers, and administrators can be heard as well. The schools in the NCES database are already loaded...some adult in the school or the school district has to activate the survey for an individual school or the entire district.

Chris Lehmann - We need more principals like him

Just the snippet you need after working in the digital divide! I survived the digital divide in the military, transitioning from analog to digital and digital to IP. I live in a miniscule digital divide with a parent and a child, one who discovered a love for technology later in life and one who continues to grow with technology. Both embrace technology, are willing to learn, try, ask questions, and share experiences. Lifelong learning is a part of everyday life in this household.

My mother encourages me to "Bloom where I am planted" when I become discouraged with the divide in the city that hosts the Masters Golf Tournament. The mayor has a Facebook page, yet we still have educators that do not check email and call a cell phone "just a cell phone".

Chris Lehmann's blog Practical Theory contains his blog entries as a principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadephia, PA. Mr. Lehmann's recent appearance at IgnitePhilly should be viewed by everyone, whether you are an educator, a parent, a community partner, a tax payer, students and saved as a favorite for anyone who works within the digital divide and has one of those days, weeks, or months, where you just want to run away and join the forward moving techies.

I also came across this shared presentation through Dr. Mcleod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant and Darren Draper's blog, Drape's Takes. Through my RSS reader, I am sure I will see more links as Mr. Lehmann's video and presentation goes viral.

Thanks Chris for sharing this snippet and thanks to everyone who continues to share through their blog posts. Your posts, shared knowledge, and experiences provide the light at the end of the tunnel when one thinks about throwing in the towel and just sticking with the forward thinking techies.