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SurveyMonkey and the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s collaboration to help schools improve parental involvement

Parent survey asking, "How ouwld you rate the quality of instruction that your child receives at school?"

Parents worldwide want to be more involved in their children’s learning, and schools that listen to parents are better positioned to meet these expectations, according to the Global Parents Survey by the Varkey Foundation.

Parent surveys not only help educators make informed decisions, but they also give parents a voice in their children's education. Parent surveys gather valuable feedback that can enhance communication, foster engagement, and ultimately support improved student outcomes.

In this article, you’ll gain access to 50+ parent survey questions and expert-written survey templates to engage parents and improve student outcomes.

A parent survey is a tool used by school administrators and educators to collect feedback from parents about their child’s education.

Parent surveys typically include questions about the school environment, academic support, communication with teachers, and overall satisfaction with the school experience. By giving parents a chance to share their perspectives, schools can gather direct input from one of the most influential stakeholders in a student’s education.

Dr. Karen Mapp's 2002 paper, "A New Wave of Evidence," highlights that parental involvement boosts student academic performance, standardized test scores, social competencies, and graduation rates.

Parent surveys are essential for understanding what parents need, what concerns they have, and how schools can better support student learning and success. Schools can use this information to

  • Evaluate their programs
  • Enhance communication strategies
  • Cultivate a more inclusive and supportive educational environment

Use our Parent Engagement Survey Template to gather feedback from parents and enhance student outcomes.

To ensure that parental involvement has a positive impact on education, we partnered with Dr. Hunter Gehlbach of the Harvard Graduate School of Education to help K-12 schools ask the right questions.

Our partner, Dr. Gehlbach, and his team employed a rigorous process to develop survey questions that 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 our parent survey template to address the following key areas.

Here are 50+ additional parent survey questions for your next survey.

  • How often do you receive communication from the school?
  • What is your preferred method of communication from the school?
  • Which types of information do you find most useful? Select all that apply.
  • How satisfied are you with the current level of communication from the school?
  • Do you feel that the communication from the school is timely?
  • How clear is the information provided by the school?
  • What barriers, if any, do you face in receiving communication from the school? Select all that apply.
  • What suggestions do you have for improving communication from the school?
  • How well do you feel the school addresses your questions and concerns?
  • How satisfied are you with the current curriculum offered at the school?
  • Do you feel the curriculum meets the educational needs of your child?
  • Which subjects do you feel need more attention in the curriculum?
  • How would you rate the overall quality of teaching at the school?
  • How well do you think the school prepares students for future academic success?
  • What do you think are the strengths of the current curriculum?
  • What improvement would you suggest for the curriculum?
  • How often do you receive updates on your child’s progress?
  • Do you feel that the school provides adequate resources and support for your child’s learning?
  • How involved do you feel in your child’s education?
  • How would you rate the overall environment of the school?
  • How satisfied are you with the safety measures in place at the school?
  • Which safety measures do you feel are most effective at the school? Select all that apply.
  • How approachable do you find the school staff regarding safety concerns?
  • How would you rate the communication from the school regarding safety policies and incidents?
  • How safe do you feel your child is at school?
  • How satisfied are you with the school’s response to bullying?
  • How well do you feel the school addresses mental health concerns?
  • What suggestions do you have for improving the school environment and safety?
  • How often do you communicate with your child’s teachers?
  • Which of the following school events do you typically attend? Select all that apply.
  • How often do you help your child with their homework?
  • How involved do you feel in your child’s education?
  • How important do you believe parental involvement is to a child’s academic success?
  • Do you feel the school provides adequate opportunities for parental involvement?
  • How many hours per week do you spend on school-related activities with your child?
  • How comfortable do you feel communicating with your child’s teachers?
  • How often do you participate in school committees or parent organizations?
  • How satisfied are you with the overall student support services provided by the school?
  • Which student support services has your child utilized? Select all that apply.
  • How effective do you believe the counseling services are in supporting your child’s emotional and mental well-being?
  • How accessible are the tutoring services provided by the school?
  • How satisfied are you with the special education services provided by the school?
  • How likely are you to recommend the school’s student support services to other parents?
  • How satisfied are you with the overall performance of the teachers at our school?
  • How effective are the teachers in addressing your child’s academic needs?
  • How would you rate the support staff’s responsiveness to your concerns?
  • How approachable and helpful are the school administrators?
  • Which aspects of teacher performance do you find most satisfactory? Select all that apply.
  • How satisfied are you with the school’s efforts to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for all students?
  • How satisfied are you with the overall quality of education provided?
  • How would you rate the communication between the school and parents?
  • How satisfied are you with the school’s facilities and resources?
  • How satisfied are you with the extracurricular activities offered?
  • How would you rate the quality of teaching staff?
  • How satisfied are you with the school’s handling of bullying?
  • What do you think is the school’s biggest strength?
  • What area do you believe needs the most improvement?
  • What are your primary concerns about your child’s future? Select all that apply.
  • How important is it for your child to attend college?
  • What type of post-secondary education do you prefer for your child?
  • What are your expectations for your child’s career path?
  • How confident are you in your child’s ability to achieve their future goals?
  • What skills do you think are most important for your child to develop for future success? Select all that apply.
  • How involved do you plan to be in your child’s educational planning?
  • How likely are you to seek professional guidance for your child’s future planning?

Related: Top student survey questions to ask

Principals, district staff, school boards, or parent/teacher organizations from any K-12 school—public, private, independent, charter, urban, or rural—should use parent surveys to understand how they’re doing with parents.

It can also be helpful to get context from your survey results by comparing them to results from other schools or organizations. Finding a benchmark to compare your parent engagement data can help you set actionable goals and better understand your strengths in school-parent interaction.

Parent engagement survey asking, "How involved have you been with a parent group(since) at your child's school?"

A parent engagement survey is ideal for gauging how involved parents feel in their child's school life. It helps schools understand how effectively they’re communicating and where there may be opportunities to boost parent involvement. Use the Parent Engagement Survey Template to identify areas where parents feel most engaged—and where they’d like to play a more active role.

Designed to explore the kinds of support parents need from the school, the Parental Support Questionnaire Template helps uncover what resources or assistance would help families better support their child’s learning. It includes questions on academic guidance, extracurricular support, and more.

K-12 survey asking, "How often do you meet in person with teachers at your child's school?"

This all-purpose survey is built specifically for families with children in K–12 education. The K-12 Parent Survey Template gathers feedback on school programs, teacher communication, and overall satisfaction, offering a well-rounded view of the parent experience.

The child behavior survey focuses on how parents observe their child’s behavior both at home and in school. The Child Behaviors Survey Template is a valuable tool for identifying behavioral concerns and building collaboration between families and educators to address those challenges.

This survey helps schools assess how confident parents feel in supporting their child’s academic progress. The Parent Self-efficacy Survey Template is especially helpful for identifying where parents may need additional resources, training, or encouragement.

School program fit surveys assess how well the school’s programs align with parents' expectations and students' needs. The School Program Fit Survey Template is a practical tool for identifying programming gaps and guiding future improvements.

Parental support survey asking, "How well do you know your child's close friends?"

The parent roles and responsibilities survey explores how parents perceive their role in their child’s education. The Parent Roles and Responsibilities Survey Template helps schools better define the parent-teacher partnership and clarify expectations on both sides.

A well-designed survey can provide valuable feedback on everything from school communication to academic support. However, a badly designed survey will lead to low response rates, unclear data, and missed opportunities to understand parent perspectives.

The steps below will guide you through the process to ensure your survey is focused, effective, and easy for parents to complete.

Before you ever consider questions or survey design, you must determine what you want to learn from the survey. Think of it as the beginning stages of a well-written research paper—it’s your research question.

Are you seeking feedback on school communication, academic programs, or parent involvement? Having clear objectives will help you craft focused questions that generate actionable insights.

You probably wouldn’t accept an assignment on the back of a napkin. You should use a reliable platform to design and distribute your survey that upholds the importance of your survey.

SurveyMonkey offers easy-to-use tools that help you create, send, and analyze surveys, along with expert-written parent survey templates specifically designed for schools. Use our AI-powered survey tool to build and analyze survey results like an expert. 

Consider the five-paragraph essay structure: it begins with a thesis statement, followed by three supporting paragraphs, and concludes with a summary. The key to an A+ essay lies in supporting paragraphs that are clear, relevant, and effectively bolster the argument presented in the thesis statement.

What makes successful parent surveys are survey questions aligned with your research goal. Keep your questions simple, specific, and aligned with your goals. Use a mix of multiple-choice, rating scale, and open-ended questions to capture both quantitative and qualitative feedback. 

Additionally, consider your audience when crafting your survey questions. Avoid leading or overly complex wording that can lead to survey bias or abandonment.

Before distributing the survey to the entire parent community, it is crucial to conduct a preliminary test with a small, representative group.

This pilot phase, akin to a classroom peer-to-peer review. It allows you to identify ambiguities, ensuring that the language is clear, concise, and easily understandable by all respondents.

Furthermore, testing helps to pinpoint potential usability issues, such as confusing navigation or technical glitches. This guarantees a smooth and effortless experience for parents.

This initial feedback loop is invaluable for refining the survey instrument, enhancing its overall effectiveness, and maximizing the quality and reliability of the data collected from the broader parent population.

Share the survey using channels that parents regularly use.

For example, if you regularly send a lunch calendar to parents’ emails, that might also be a good way to distribute a survey, as they already expect school communication there. Or teachers may embed a survey on their personal teacher website.

Clearly communicate the purpose and importance of the survey to encourage participation.

Once you receive survey feedback, act on it! Review the data to identify trends, concerns, and opportunities for improvement.

You may find an increasing number of parents wanting information about tutoring programs. Or parents do not know how to support their child’s education at home.

Use these insights to make updates to the curriculum and school programs. And communicate any actions you plan to take based on the feedback received. Families will want to understand shifts in their child's learning environment and how they can best assist their student through these transitions.

Conducting parent surveys effectively requires more than just sending out a list of questions. To gather meaningful feedback, you need to plan thoughtfully, communicate clearly, and create an environment that fosters honest responses.

The following tips will help you boost participation, enhance response quality, and maximize the insights you collect.

Collect data on the parents’ background, including their child’s grade level, household income, and educational level, to identify trends. Asking parents’ demographic survey questions can help tailor programs, improve communication, and enhance engagement strategies.

Formulate clear and actionable questions that comprehensively address relevant aspects of the school experience. This should include inquiries about communication, support services, and the overall learning environment.

Ensure that each question encourages thoughtful reflection and covers aspects such as student engagement, mental health resources, safety measures, and parental involvement, fostering a holistic understanding of the educational journey.

Qualitative data only tells half of the story. Imagine receiving feedback that most parents believe the school's tutoring services are inaccessible. Why? An open-ended question can explain why parents can’t access tutoring for their child.

For example, a multiple-choice question may ask, “How accessible are the tutoring services provided by the school?” The follow-up close-ended question may ask, “Tell us about your experience accessing tutoring services.”

You may find that parents don’t know how to sign their child up for tutoring, or they may desire wider tutoring hours.

Education is fundamentally a collaborative endeavor, often likened to a team sport where teachers, parents, and students collaborate to achieve the best educational outcomes.

It is essential to present the survey results to parents in a clear and accessible manner. This transparency will help parents understand the current state of the classroom environment, any upcoming changes in curriculum or teaching methods, and specific strategies they can employ to support their child's learning journey.

By keeping parents informed and engaged, you can foster a stronger partnership that enhances student success and overall school community involvement.

It’s important to recognize that, unfortunately, some parents may hesitate to voice critical feedback due to concerns about potential retaliation against their child. This fear can stem from past experiences, perceived power dynamics, or a lack of trust in the system. To address these concerns and encourage open communication, it is essential to reassure parents that their input is anonymous. 

Anonymous surveys ensure that personal identifiers are not collected or linked to responses. By emphasizing anonymity and communicating how responses will be used to improve the school environment, parents can feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts without the fear of negative consequences for their children.

Related: Boost school engagement with student polls

Creating meaningful parent and guardian surveys doesn’t have to be complicated. With our expert-designed templates, school administrators can quickly build parent surveys that assist academically aligned goals, boost classroom wellbeing, and create a sense of camaraderie between teachers and parents.

These tools make it easy to collect feedback, analyze results, and drive positive change in your school community. Ready to get started? Explore SurveyMonkey for Education to create powerful surveys that support student success.

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