Oklahoma Innovation Task Force Education Survey – Moving at the Speed of Creativity

If you are an Oklahoma educator, please take a few minutes to complete this 29 question survey for Creative Oklahoma. The past couple of years I’ve attended several meetings of this task force (both in person and on the phone) and believe the work they are doing is important. We need to place much more emphasis, time, and importance on CREATIVITY in our schools today. Here is the full letter from John Feaver and Susan McCalmont which provides more background about this survey, the task force, and their work. Please share this with other Oklahoma educators you know, forwarding this via email and social media. Please respond by October 14th.

Dear Educator-

We invite YOU, Oklahoma educators, to help create the innovation index that will enable educators to identify and grow the types of creative opportunities offered to students on a daily basis in classrooms.

Educators in Oklahoma are always seeking the opportunity to showcase the excellence that is happening within their classrooms and schools. Currently, the only measures of student success that are available to the general public are standardized test scores and school letter grades. While we know that these accountability measures are critical to document students’ progress, we also believe that there are additional opportunities where our students must excel that are currently not being communicated to the general public. This hampers the ability of parents and businesses to be effective partners in our schools. There is currently no way to catalogue and describe how schools are fostering truly innovative, creative learning opportunities for our children so they will be ready to contribute to their future success and the success of our state. The development of an Innovation Index can help parents to make informed choices about their children’s schools and can help communities provide support.

The Oklahoma Innovation Index seeks to highlight the need for our schools to educate our future workers and citizens in the innovative skills and critical thinking that the economy demands. Schools must be able to show that they are providing regular opportunities for students to discover and use their gifts and talents. Students need to think on their feet to solve real-world problems, be able to work on a team, and effectively express themselves. Beyond the test scores, Oklahoma needs to know how schools help students develop lifelong skills that businesses need: creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

The link below is to a survey that will help inform the development of the Oklahoma Innovation Index. The index has not been developed yet because the task force believes input from all stakeholders is important to the initiative. Your responses to this survey will inform the direction the task force will then take in the development of the index. There will be additional opportunities for the educator voice throughout the process.

Your voice is critical to our success. Click the link below to begin to share your voice with us. Please give yourself 10 minutes to complete the survey. Please help us explore all the creative capacities that Oklahoma has. We need responses no later that October 14th.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WVBB2GY

Thank you for your time and consideration,

John Feaver, Chairman, Oklahoma Innovation Task Force

Susan McCalmont, President, Creative Oklahoma