A strong and healthy relationship between parents and schools leads to positive outcomes for students.
However, some parents can be hard to reach or unwilling to participate. In this instance, building those good partnerships can be tough.
Although, a lack of presence and communication from families does not mean they don't care about fostering a child's education.
For example, many parents battle with unflexible work schedules that make engaging with teachers during school hours very difficult.
Therefore, parent surveys for teachers are a great solution to fostering good relationships in a vehicle that works for both parties.
Parents are able to provide feedback at a time that is convenient for them and teachers receive feedback that is measurable and easy to act on.
Learn more about how to conduct parent surveys and what questions to ask.
What Are Parent Surveys For Teachers?
Parent surveys for teachers are used to learn more about families to help create an ideal learning environment for children.
Ultimately, these surveys can cover a wide range of topics and ideas.
For example, some may focus on perceptions of the school and competitors, while others may focus more on learning about at-home habits and interests.
Why Are Parent Surveys Important?
Parent surveys for teachers are used to understand opinions, attitudes, perceptions, and points of view about topics that concern their children.
Additionally, teachers and school decision-makers who conduct regular surveys with parents foster a healthy parent-teacher relationship.
Better yet, having a channel that fosters good communication between parents and school administrators is important for a child’s education.
For instance, teacher-parent communication increases the odds that students complete their homework by 40%.
Other important objectives and goals achieved through parent surveys for teachers include:
- Critical differentiators for the schools
- Perception of the school
- Drivers to perception
- Analysis of core competencies
- Program features that are most appealing
- Pricing
- Primary success areas
- Primary opportunity areas
Each parent survey is unique based on the goals and objectives of the classroom teachers and/or school decision-makers.
For example, a school based in California partnered with our parent survey company to conduct an online survey and focus groups with current and prospective school parents.
The investment in market research provided the school with operations, marketing, and strategic planning.
Learn more about this parent focus group and survey study.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Parent surveys for classroom teachers are an investment to learn more about school perceptions, areas of success and improvements, drivers to choosing one school over another, and more.
How to Survey Parents
Recruiting families to participate in research is notoriously a difficult task.
That's because there are two factors that impact the ease of getting parent feedback.
- Parents are often pressed for time
- There may be additional permissions that need to take place if children are asked to participate
Luckily, our market research company has experience surveying families. Below is the step-by-step process we follow when conducting parent surveys for teachers.
1. Requesting a proposal
The first step to conducting a parent survey is to request a proposal or quote for the research. Working with a third-party market research company makes this process simple.
The team will work with you to understand what the objectives of the research are, how the results will be used, and more.
2. Holding a kickoff meeting
Once the proposal is agreed upon, the next step is to hold a kickoff meeting.
During this meeting, the research team will work with the client team to…
- Review the primary and secondary objectives
- Understand how the results will be used
- Understand the history of the school to learn more about the need for research
These meetings typically last between 30 to 60 minutes. In addition to learning more about the study, the research team will also discuss the project timeline and how the process works to ensure both teams are aligned.
3. Designing the parent survey
After the kickoff meeting is complete, the research team will use the insights gathered to create the parent survey.
Ultimately, the survey will be crafted based on the unique objectives noted by the team in the kickoff meeting.
After the first survey draft is complete, the research and client teams will work together to finalize the questions.
4. Surveying parents
When the client team officially signs off on the survey, the research team will then program the survey and prepare to launch fieldwork.
This process typically takes 2 to 3 weeks to complete.
5. Analyzing and reporting on the parent survey results
Once fieldwork for the parent survey is complete, the research team will begin analyzing the data.
The data will then be summarized keeping in mind the goals and objectives outlined by the client.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Working with a market research firm to conduct parent surveys for classroom teachers makes the process easy and streamlined.
Questions to Ask in a Parent Survey
For most parent surveys, the key to remember is to keep the survey as concise and easy to respond to as possible.
Consider ways to…
- Limit the number of questions and only focus on core research objectives
- Mix up the question type to keep things interesting
- Ensure the question phrasing/answer options are intuitive
- Always offer an incentive or benefit to participants
Here are a few examples of questions for parent surveys:
- How long has your child(ren) attended [insert school]? Select one.
- Ultimately, why did you decide not to enroll your child(ren) in [insert school]? Enter your response below.
- How would you describe your overall experience with [insert school]? Select all that apply.
- Which of the following factors are most important when selecting a school for your child(ren)? Select up to 3.
- How likely are you to recommend [insert school] to a friend or colleague? Select a rating.
- Please explain why you rated [insert school] as a [insert response] out of 10. Enter your response below.
- Which of the following schools do you view as a competitor to [insert response]? Select all that apply.
- Of the following schools, which are you most familiar with? Select up to 3.
- Overall, how do the following schools compare to [insert response]? Select a rating for each.
- How did you initially become aware of [insert response]? Select one.
Looking for more? Check out this post on conducting education market research.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Questions for parent surveys are created based on the goals and objectives outlined by the school. Each parent survey can be customized to fit the specific needs of teachers and/or decision-makers.
Conduct Parent Surveys for Teachers With Drive Research
Drive Research is a full-service market research company specializing in grade-level and higher education. Our team conducts qualitative and quantitative market research studies for schools and universities across the country.
To learn more about our services, please contact Drive Research through any of the four channels listed below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Taylor
As a Project Manager, Emily is approaching a decade of experience in the market research industry and loves to challenge the status quo. She is a certified VoC professional with a passion for storytelling.
Learn more about Emily, here.
