Thanks, I tried to get feedback from my daughter. Once she finished rolling her eyes, her immediate concerns were:
1) Would my name be on the survey in any fashion (i.e. would the kids at school have any clue her mom was doing this).
2)Would the the kids have the sign the form? (Asking for positive feedback is bad enough, but asking them to publicly acknowledge they liked something about school - no way!)
Luckily I was able to reassure her on both counts!
Hey, how about asking about a favorite teacher or the one that really made a difference in their year?
Do they have a Student Council and what is their thoughts on how the Council represented them.
What were the top 3 events you enjoyed at the school this year?
Trying to think like my oldest....ugh, that's scary!
Thanks for the suggestions. Since we are only going after positive thoughts on this one, that shouldn't be an issue. Right now, the draft is starting has 5 questions:
1. What is the best thing about {XYZ School}?
2. What was the best accomplishment/proudest moment for YOU this year as a {XYZ School}student
3. Which club or activity did you find most fun?
4. Which teacher or staff member influenced you the most? How?
5. What is the most memorable thing that happened this year? (Can be fun, serious, inspiring, humorous, etc.)
I'm getting feedback from some other PTO members and staff as well as a few students. (And, yes, I'm prepared for some snide replies.)
The surveys will be anonymous. The plan is that the students will turn the completed survey in to their homeroom teacher and receive an entry card. They'll fill out the entry card and submit it in a drawing for a $25 mall gift card. We'll have one prize per grade.
Any thoughts, comments, suggestions are appreciated.
I doubt this would come up, BUT avoid any questions pertaining to sex and drugs! And you might want to make sure you let the parents know you're giving this survey. I mention this because a MS in a town near us gave an anonymous-response survey to the kids trying to get a better feel about how big a problem sex/drugs were, and boy-oh-boy did it hit the fan! Most of the parents had no problem with it, and were glad to hear the results, because it turned out the problem was more wide-spread than they thought, but a few (and we all know so well those "few" as EVERY town seems to have them) went ape! They weren't told it was being administered, they claimed the kids felt they HAD to take the survey (though it said right in the opening paragraph that it wasn't required or mandated), and the sex and drugs questions were HIGHLY offensive were just some of the complaints, and they took the school district to court over it! It ended up being dismissed, but the school district was really put through the wringer.
If any parents or any one you know works in marketing research, see if they can help you. I learned a lot working in a corporate library with a marketing research team about how the wording of questions can be really important to make sure you get more accurate results.
Middle school is scary and the problems that do exist tend to get blown out of proportion. Our teachers and principal don't have a lot of time to invest in school PR, so our PTO wants to make a big effort publicizing all the "bragging points" to new parents.
As part of this effort we want to do an end-of-the-year survey of students asking what they liked best, what had the most impact on them, what was their best memory this year, etc. (We aren't looking to do a full blown assessment "what did you like and what didn't you like".)
Does anyone have a sample survey or suggestions for questions to use (or to avoid)?
