Officials from Sampson County Schools are currently seeking input to improve technology and the Common Core standards in the classroom.
Speak Up, the 2015 online survey is now open for all students, parents, teachers, administrators and other members of the community. According to a news release from the district, it offers the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered input on education and technology from those ‘on the ground’ in education.
Last year, more than 521,000 students, parents, educators and community patrons from thousands of schools nationwide participated in Speak Up.
In Sampson County, six schools were recognized as Speak Up Loud and Clear Schools. The schools recognized included Midway Middle, Union Intermediate, Union Middle, Hobbton Middle, Roseboro Elementary and Hargrove Elementary. Many of the nominated schools exceeded more than 80 percent of student participation, allowing for a data set for schools to use in planning and research.
“These schools were part of a group that have gone above and beyond with their promotion creativity, outreach and use of data,” school officials stated.
Mary Lynn Warren, instructional technology coordinator for Sampson County Schools, and other district officials said the new set of data will provide valuable insights for schools and districts as well as state and federal policy makers on the importance of digital tools and resources for college and career readiness.
“We’re pleased with the participation of our schools at this point,” Warren said. “We really want to get the community and businesses involved now. But our students an our teachers are doing a great job participating and we’re gathering a lot of good information.”
Warren said the information will help teachers in the grant writing process and for other school needs.
“It gives us a snapshot of what we have, what we need, where we’re going or where we need to go,” she said. “There’s so much valuable data that can be used on many levels.”
Also, parents and community members will be asked about their awareness of the new Common Core Standards and educational sources related to it. With the upcoming implementation of the new standards and associated online assessments, writing abilities are also important. Questions and responses regarding these matters are also included in the survey.
Information provided in the Speak Up survey is confidential and completed online and takes about 20 minutes. It’s facilitated by Project Tomorrow and is supported by companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations such as Blackboard, Inc., BrainPOP, DreamBox Learning, Fuel Education, Rosetta Stone, Schoolwires, SMART Technologies and Qualcomm Wireless Reach.
The survey is available through Friday, Dec. 18, and is available online at www.tomorrow.org/speakup.
Employers, after-school providers, school board members and homeowners without children in local schools may participate in the survey by visiting www.speakup4schools.org/speakup2015. During the survey, takers can provide their views on the role of technology in preparing students for the jobs in the 21st century.
Project Tomorrow partners with more than 75 different education associations, organizations and think-tanks for outreach to the schools and development of the survey questions including the American Association of School Administrators, Consortium for School Networking, Digital Learning Day, Digital Promise, edWeb.net, iNACOL, International Society for Technology in Education, National School Boards Association, National Secondary School Principals Association, Southern Regional Education Board and State Education Technology Directors’ Association.