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Parent Survey Created For K-12 Schools

SurveyMonkey, partnering with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has created an extensive set of questions -- research grounded and user tested -- for surveying parents' attitudes about their children's school.

Parent involvement in schools helps students earn higher grades, boost test scores, improve social skills, and graduate, according to the 2002 paper entitled A New Wave of Evidence, The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement, authored by Harvard Graduate School of Education Lecturer, Dr. Karen Mapp.

Many parent surveys have missed the aspects of the family/school relationship that drive student outcomes. That's why SurveyMonkey has teamed up with Dr. Hunter Gehlbach of Harvard Graduate School of Education to help K-12 schools ask the right questions to assess parent involvement.

Dr. Gehlbach and his team used a rigorous process to create survey questions to assess key areas of family/school relationships. Drawing from academic literature, parent interviews, focus groups, expert panels, and survey design best practices, the team developed questions that addressed the following key areas:

  1. Parental support – How much help are students getting at home?
  2. Child behaviors – What habits have students developed that shape their success?
  3. Parent engagement – How engaged are parents in their child's schooling, and what potential barriers exist?
  4. Parent self-efficacy – How confident are parents in supporting their child's schooling?
  5. School climate – How do parents view their school regarding academic and social standards?
  6. School program fit – How well do a school's academic program, social climate, and organizational structure match a student's needs?
  7. Parent roles and responsibilities – How do parents view their roles as well as teachers' roles in different aspects of their child's schooling?

If your school or district is interested in using the survey and has further questions, you can get in touch with the folks behind it.


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