A Free Survey of Parent Involvement

In this Education Week article, Michele Molnar reports on a parent survey developed at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education in collaboration with Survey Monkey. The 71-item question bank covers seven areas of family engagement with children’s education:

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

The survey questions can be adapted by schools and districts and taken online or via pencil and paper without authorization from Harvard or Survey Monkey. The question bank is available free at http://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/harvard-education-surveys. To take advantage of Survey Monkey analysis, the cost ranges from $17 to $65 for a one-month survey.

“Survey Tool Aims for Fresh Eye on Parents” by Michele Molnar in Education Week, Jan. 16, 2013 (Vol. 32, #17, p. 10), 

From the Marshall Memo #469