Survey Guide
We are looking forward to helping you administer a Challenge Success survey. This guide will provide important information and resources to help you move through the survey process.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
Since 2009, several hundred thousand participants have completed a Challenge Success survey. Our survey protocols and procedures were developed by Stanford researchers and are overseen by Stanford’s Administrative Panels for the Protection of Human Subjects.
5 STEPS IN THE SURVEY PROCESS
PREPARE FOR YOUR SURVEY
2-6 weeks before survey start date
Please share the follow information with your faculty/staff
Introduction to Survey for Faculty/Staff
2-4 weeks before launching the survey, we ask that you send the information sheet below to parents/caregivers. This document provides the opportunity for parents/caregivers to opt their children out of participating in the survey. Many schools choose to include in this communication an explanation about the purpose of the survey and what insights they hope to glean. If members of your community would like to review the survey ahead of time, we encourage you to make it available as a hard copy; please don’t email a digital copy.
Parent/Caregiver Information Sheet – English
Parent/Caregiver Information Sheet – Mandarin
Parent/Caregiver Information Sheet – Spanish
Our survey administration process is in compliance with Stanford’s Institutional Review Board’s policies and procedures as well as with US Federal laws regarding survey collection and administration to minors. However, some states may have additional consent and privacy requirements, laws, or regulations. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure it is in compliance with local and state laws and regulations.
CONDUCT THE SURVEY
Month leading up to survey
One month before the start date of your survey, you will receive an email with a link to the survey. This is the link that you will ultimately distribute to those participating. Note that the survey link will be live and will collect data if submitted. If you test the survey, let our Research Team know so we can delete your response.
Share this survey script with those administering the survey.
CONFIRM PARTICIPATION RATE
Once survey commences
A Research Team staff member will follow up with you a few days after your survey commences to share the participation rate. If you are happy with this rate, we will close the survey and begin analysis of the data.
Follow up with those administering survey as needed to ensure that all groups you intended to survey have had the chance to participate.
REVIEW RESULTS
After survey closes
Please allow 2-4 weeks to analyze the data and create a dashboard of the results. Once the analysis is complete, you will receive an email with credentials to access your dashboard.
Congratulations on completing your survey! We are looking forward to reviewing the results with you and sharing our analysis of your data. The survey debrief session is a 1-hour virtual meeting to help your team make sense of the data and determine ways to improve student well-being, engagement, and belonging. We will share a scheduling link by email.
For this debrief session, we recommend inviting key administrators, faculty and staff members.
SHARE & TAKE ACTION
After survey debrief session
It’s important to start with faculty when disseminating data. Avoid blindsiding them by providing it to families or on the website first. Determine what data points are most important to share and how they might impact future plans or current conversations amongst faculty. Here are some options for sharing the data:
– Provide a copy of the survey to all faculty members. Ask teachers to read the report before meeting as a group. Ask teachers to reflect on hot and cold spots of the report and to share those ideas with their small group. Allow time for each table to share one or two hot or cold spots to the entire group. Distribute post-it notes and ask everyone to take some time to think about what actions might be taken based on those reflections.
– Put a chart or table on a slide and share it during a faculty meeting to spark conversation about a topic or introduce an initiative (e.g. % of kids “doing school” and % of students not engaged in schoolwork to begin discussing a plan to make schoolwork more engaging, experiential, and meaningful).
– Share results of the survey in a “game show” format (think, The Price is Right). This has been done in a faculty meeting but also could be done with students and parents in small groups. Here is how it was done in one high school. First, the CS team chooses a topic to cover (don’t try to cover the entire survey report in one or even two meetings). For instance, stress related to schoolwork (questions about physical stress, sleep, academic worry, etc. ). Have three faculty “contestants” come up front and ask them, “what percent of students do you think are almost always and always stressed about their schoolwork?” Each contestant guesses and the one closest to the correct answer, wins. You can give out prizes such as post-it notes, pens, etc. After each question, you spend a few minutes de-briefing about the question and student responses.
One way to begin to create awareness in your school community is to share parts of the Challenge Success survey results. We advise schools not to share the entire report as it can be overwhelming. Instead, we suggest sharing pieces of the survey report that are tied to your action plan and areas that you are planning to address in the near future.
Here are some ways schools have shared the results from the survey that have encouraged open and reflective dialogue within their communities:
– At a parent coffee, share a set of results from the report and ask them to share what they think parents could do to ameliorate this problem. You might want to bring some handouts to give to parents such as a white paper from our website, book recommendations, articles that include tools and strategies for supporting students. For instance, share with parents the results on students’ sleep. Ask them if this resonates with them. Talk about strategies that parents can control (try to avoid focusing only on things that are out of their control). Print out articles about the importance of sleep to share with parents (there are some cited on our website).
– Share a result from the survey report in a weekly newsletter (or Principal’s/Counselor’s message) to parents and students prior to a relevant event or activity. For instance, if you are planning a sleep education evening for parents, in the event announcement or a newsletter prior to the event, you can share the average amount of sleep your students reported getting in a typical night along with the amount of sleep doctors recommended adolescents get each night.
– Ask students in small groups (e.g. in advisory or student club) to reflect on a set of results from the report and ask them to share what might help to solve a certain problem. For example, the results on stress and physical symptoms of stress.
– Put a set of the survey results (e.g. average amount of sleep or percent of students who cheated in past year or percent of students who suffer from headaches or difficulty sleeping) on poster boards and put them up around the school to create awareness or to motivate students to sign up for a CS club to take action.
There are many ways to continue your engagement with us. If you’re not sure where to start, just reach out to schedule a call with one of our School Design Partners, and we’ll find a path forward together.
Many schools who start working with us by administering a survey eventually go on to:
– Host a parent education workshop
– Schedule professional development
– Attend a Challenge Success conference/PD
– Join the Challenge Success School Program