Shelby County Schools Superintendent Randy Fuller is one of 20 school district superintendents from across the country to receive the first Speak Up Shout Out Awards as 2016 Outstanding Superintendents for their districts’ exceptional participation in the Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning.  The awards were announced during AASA’s Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

“More than 2,600 districts participated in Speak Up 2015, but these 20 stood out to us for their commitment to raising the voices of their stakeholders, notably students, parents, community members and educators at all levels,” said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow. “Speak Up, in addition to being a national research project, is a free service open to all schools, and we are thrilled to see so many taking advantage of the online surveys and national reports.”

“Superintendents across the country are dealing with an array of educational technology opportunities and Speak Up offers a platform so they can learn directly from their stakeholders about what students, parents and teachers are looking for now and in the future,” said Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association. “The superintendents being recognized by Project Tomorrow are leaders in the effective use of technology for learning.”

The Speak Up Shout Out Awards for 2016 Outstanding Superintendents (by state):

• Matt Massey, Madison County School District, AL
• Randy Fuller, Shelby County School District, AL
• James P. Lee, Paradise Valley Unified District, AZ
• Gregory O’Brien, Centinela Valley Union High School District, CA
• Kevin Holt, San Marcos Unified, CA
• Terry Decker, Solana Beach School District, CA
• Desmond K. Blackburn, Brevard County School District, FL
• Robert W. Runcie, Broward County School District, FL
• Ann Linson, East Noble School Corporation, IN
• Philip G. Downs, Southwest Allen County Schools, IN
• Todd White, Blue Valley Schools, KS
• Sonja B. Santelises, Baltimore City Public School System, MD
• Dallas Dance, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
• Eric Bracy, Sampson County Schools, NC
• Joseph Siano, Norman Public Schools, OK
• Juan Cabrera, El Paso ISD, TX
• Huey Kinchen, Tomball ISD, TX
• Pamela Moran, Albemarle County Public Schools, VA
• Karen Garza, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
• David T. Sovine, Frederick County Public Schools, VA

 

About the Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning and Speak Up 2015
Speak Up is an initiative of Project Tomorrow®, the leading global education nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of student voices in education. Each year, the Speak Up Research Project polls K-12 students, parents and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school.  This survey represents the largest collection of authentic, unfiltered stakeholder voices on digital learning. Since fall 2003, more than 4 million K-12 students, parents, teachers, librarians, principals, technology leaders, district administrators and members of the community have shared their views and ideas through Speak Up.  K-12 educators, higher education faculty, business, and policy leaders report that they regularly use the Speak Up data to inform federal, state and local education programs.

In fall 2015, Project Tomorrow surveyed 415,686 K-12 students, 38,613 parents, 38,157 teachers, 2,061 librarians, 662 district administrators, 2,868 school administrators, 736 technology leaders, 270 communication officers and 6,653 members of the community representing 7,825 public and private schools from 2,660 districts. Schools from urban (25%), suburban (40%), and rural (35%) communities are represented. More than half of the schools (58%) that participated in Speak Up 2015 are Title I eligible schools (an indicator of student population poverty). The Speak Up 2015 surveys were available online for input between October 1 and December 18, 2015.

Some of the national findings were detailed in From Print to Pixel: The role of videos, games, animations and simulations within K-12 education: www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU15AnnualReport.html

The online survey is supported by many of our nation’s most innovative companies, foundations and nonprofit organizations including Blackboard, BrainPOP, CDW, DreamBox Learning, Qualcomm® WirelessReach™ and Scholastic.