K-12 Students Have the Chance to Speak Up to President-Elect Obama: “What is the one thing you would do to improve schools?”
Students around the country have the chance to share their thoughts on improving education with President-Elect Obama and the new Congress by participating in the new Mini-Speak Up survey. Speak Up, a national survey conducted annually by Project Tomorrow, closed its annual survey of parents, teachers and students on December 23rd, but one open-ended question will remain online for all students through January 20th, Inauguration Day.
Students can respond to the following question at @link href=’http://www.netdayspeakup.org/inauguration08’target=”_blank”>www.netdayspeakup.org/inauguration08/link.
“Imagine you are the President of the United States (or the leader of your country) and your #1 education goal is to make sure every student is prepared for the jobs and careers of the future. What is the one thing you would do to improve schools to ensure that all students receive the education and skills they need to be successful in life?”
“We look forward to seeing the breadth of ideas our nation’s students put forward, and sharing those with this country’s elected leaders in the spring,” said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, the survey’s facilitator and a national leader in empowering students to have a voice in improving education in the 21st century. “We encourage students to respond on their own, teachers to lead a class discussion on the topic or assign it for homework, and parents to discuss suggestions with their children,” added Evans.
Speak Up offers the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered input on education and technology from those ‘on the ground’ in the schools. More than 260,000 students, 21,000 parents and 32,000 teachers and administrators participated in this year’s surveys from schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Speak Up surveys are open to every public and private school and district in the United States, American schools on military bases and other interested schools worldwide. Schools that have not previously participated in Speak Up2008 may register to participate in the mini-survey at @link href=’http://www.netdayspeakup.org/inauguration08’target=”_blank”>www.netdayspeakup.org/inauguration08/link. The online survey is facilitated by Project Tomorrow (formerly known as NetDay) and supported by many of our nation’s most innovative companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations including CDW-G, SMART Technologies, PASCO scientific, Blackboard Inc., William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Wimba and 1105 Media Education Group.
About Project Tomorrow: Speak Up is a national initiative of Project Tomorrow (formerly known as NetDay), the nation’s leading education nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that today’s students are well prepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world. Since fall 2003, the annual Speak Up project has collected and reported on the views of over 1.2 million K-12 students, teachers, administrators and parents representing over 14,000 schools in all 50 states. 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 use the data regularly to inform federal, state and local education programs. For additional information, visit @link href=’http://www.tomorrow.org’target=”_blank”>www.tomorrow.org/link.
