School Community Feedback Survey

Deployment Help Document

A complete sample of the live surveys are available at:

If there are questions or wording that do not apply or are not appropriate to your school community, please feel free to discuss options with us.

For additional help or further information, please contact:

Sheri Burkeen, Director of Resources sheri@sais.org

Carole Weems, Accreditation and Survey Manager carole@sais.org

Survey Registration Help

The survey registration form may be accessed by clicking this link.

On the registration form you can create an account that will allow you to save your progress and complete the form later. We strongly encourage you to complete this step.

Number of Stakeholders

For each stakeholder group participating in the survey, please give us your best estimate of how many emails we should expect for each group.  

  • Total number of FAMILIES with children enrolled. Most schools send one household email. Surveys may be sent to both parents in separate households.
  • Total number of STUDENTS (grades 9-12 only) We will allow schools to survey students as early as 6th grade but have found that the best data and feedback will come from your upper school students.
  • Total number of FACULTY/STAFF (this number should include administration and any other staff members you wish to survey)

SAIS Membership

The survey fee for non-member schools is a flat rate of $1500. for any combination of survey deployments. Optional custom question fees will apply if the school chooses to add their own questions.

Survey Options

Which stakeholder groups will be completing your survey? Select the appropriate survey versions. There is a discounted fee for SAIS member schools of $1000. If you choose to deploy to all three groups.

  • Parent Survey ($400)
  • Faculty/Staff Survey ($400)
  • Student Survey (for 9th-12th grade students only) ($400)

The previous version of this survey was also offered to trustees and alumni. For the current version, trustees or alumni who are current parents may be added to the parent survey and respond from a parent’s perspective. The current survey does not offer the option to survey trustees or alumni who are not parents of current students. Separate surveys specific to the role of a trustee and the experience of an alumnus may be used to gather information from these groups. Please contact Sheri@sais.org for more information.

Weblink for Student Use

For the student version ONLY, you may choose to use a weblink to the survey instead of student emails. When using a weblink, the school should set aside a day, time of day, or class to allow students to complete the survey in a supervised setting. Teachers or advisors will display the weblink address and students will log in from their device to complete the survey. The survey may be completed on any web enabled device (computer, tablet, or phone). When using this weblink method, we are unable to track which students have or have not responded, and we are unable to send an email reminder if they do not complete the survey. If you choose to use the weblink, you do not need to include student emails in your upload. We will provide a weblink or send email invitations but using both methods is not recommended.

Special Note About Surveying Students

Parents should be notified that their children will be surveyed. This can be added to the pre-notification email or letter sent from the school.

  • Pre-notification Date – sent by the school 3 to 5 days before deploy date

This is the announcement of the survey sent from the school. This may be sent via email, mail, or posted on social media. This will alert your stakeholders to be on the lookout for the survey. It assures your stakeholders that the survey is legitimate and being conducted in cooperation with the school. If you are including students in the survey, this is an opportunity to let parents know that their students will also receive a survey.  

  • Deploy Date – deployed by SAIS on school specified date

We will send survey invitations around 7:00 AM in your time zone. We recommend Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday for initial deployment. Generally, you should avoid having your survey run during major events in the school such as the re-enrollment period, major holidays, exams, etc.

  • Reminder 1 Date –sent by SAIS 2 to 3 days after deployment

Stakeholders that have completed the survey do not receive this reminder. Partial survey responses are not included in the final data analysis. Stakeholders who begin the survey but do not complete it are sent a reminder to complete. We are unable to send reminders to students that use a web link to complete the survey. There is an option for any responder to opt out of the survey. Those that choose to opt out do not receive future email reminders from SAIS.

  • School Update – sent by the school 4 to 6 days after deployment

This is optional. We recommend that this update come out in a regularly scheduled communication – newsletter, weekly folder, etc. Schools that send out this interim update have a much higher response rate. You will be sending out to your entire stakeholder group regardless of whether they have responded. If you want to include your current response rates, contact us and we can let you know what they are so you can include it in your note.

  • Reminder 2 Date – sent by SAIS 6-8 days after deployment

Stakeholders that have completed the survey do not receive this reminder. Stakeholders who begin the survey but do not complete it are sent a reminder to complete. Those that have not accessed the survey are reminded to do so.

  • Close Date – 10-12 days after deployment

We typically close surveys around 10pm on the close date. If your response rate is lower than expected or something unusual has interrupted your survey, please let us know and we are happy to extend the close date.

  • Thank you message – sent by the school 1-3 days after close date

You will receive the survey report 10-14 days after the survey closes. 

Create and upload an Excel file that contains the email addresses of the stakeholders you wish to survey. If your school uses Google sheets, Numbers, or something other than Microsoft Excel please contact Sheri@sais.org.

  • The spreadsheet should be formatted in three columns:
    • email address
    • salutation
    • stakeholder group
  • Salutation is the name you want us to use to address the stakeholder (Dear Bob, Dear Mr. Smith, or Dear Parent).
  • Upload only one email address per person.
  • The survey system will send and allow only one response per email. If you choose to survey both parents, you must have a unique email address for each parent.
  • If you have faculty that are also parents, you may include them on both the parent survey and the faculty survey. Because the surveys are separate, you may use the same email address on both lists. Be sure to let your faculty parents know that they will receive both the parent and faculty version of the survey and should respond to each from the appropriate perspective.
  • If you are using a weblink for students, there is no need to include their email addresses here.
  • Please combine all stakeholder groups into one spreadsheet file.
  • Upload the file via the online registration form. You will not be able to submit the form until the data has been uploaded.

Optional Survey Add-ons (no charge)

We have created three pre-made survey add-ons that are available to add to your survey at no cost. These gather feedback on dining services, uniforms, and faith-based aspects of a school. If you would like to add any of these optional sections, please indicate on the registration form. You may add one, two, three, or none of these sections.

Custom Questions

Most schools do not add additional questions to the survey. Please be sure to complete a sample survey before adding questions to avoid asking for similar information.

If you decide to add questions, please contact Sheri@sais.org to discuss the best way to format your questions. After sending your preview to sheri@sais.org, upload a document to the online registration form that is very specific about the wording of the question(s) and about the response type you are seeking. We will provide you with a preview survey for your review and approval prior to deploying your survey.

Additional custom survey question fees:
Each additional open-ended question is $50
Each additional rating/matrix/multiple choice question $50

Let us know where respondents should go when they submit their survey. Some schools create a custom thank you page and others have a link to an events page.

Use the narrative box to communicate anything else to us. We are always available by phone or email as well.

Sheri Burkeen, Director of Resources           Carole Weems, Accreditation and Survey Manager

sheri@sais.org                                                 carole@sais.org

Payment

Once you get to this point, you will be asked for a credit card payment. Your form will not be submitted without the required fields or the payment.

Form Confirmation

A confirmation is sent to the email address that you gave in the contact section. If you do not receive the automatic confirmation email within a few minutes or so of submitting the form, please contact Carole Weems, Accreditation and Survey Manager carole@sais.org.

Survey Updates

During the survey, we will send you one update. This is usually sent after our first reminder goes out. We will report the number of completed responses received to date. If you need additional updates, just drop us an email.

Survey Results

The survey results reports are created and sent to you via email 10-14 days after your survey closing date. Both the survey coordinator and the head of school will receive the report.

When SAIS sends the survey invitations, it will appear that they are coming from surveys@sais.org via research.net or member@outbound.research.net. In order to avoid faculty and student emails getting caught in spam folders, please have your tech department follow the instructions here about firewall and IP addresses to allow.

The deployment strategy and timeline are based on cooperation and coordination between the school and SAIS. If you are surveying students, this is a good time to notify the parents if you have not already done so.

Initial Notice – Pre-Notification

This communication is sent from the school two to three days before the survey launches. It can also be posted in newsletter, social media, etc.


Dear {individual name},

We are conducting a brief survey that will take approximately ten minutes to complete. Your participation in this survey will yield meaningful results about our school’s program and culture and offer the opportunity to share your personal feedback with us. The survey is being conducted through a third party, SAIS (our independent school accrediting agency) and you will receive a link to the survey via email on {DATE FOR LAUNCH}. The subject of the survey email will read “An Invitation from _____ School”

The survey is anonymous, and results are reported in groups such as “middle school parents” or “students in 9th and 10th grades.” Your name or email address will not appear in the report.

{your commentary about the survey as needed}

Thank you in advance for your participation in this survey.  

{Appropriate signature}

Suggested Message for School Update
(in a regularly scheduled communication with stakeholders: newsletter, weekly folder, etc.)

Survey UpdateOur survey has launched and there are just a few days left until it closes. If you have not yet responded, please do so. Your opinions and perceptions are important, and we want to hear from you. If you have not received an email asking you to participate in the survey, please contact us directly at {email address for help} and we will make sure you have a chance to participate.


The survey should only take about ten minutes to complete, and the survey will close on {CLOSE DATE}.

{Appropriate signature}

(For people who notify you that they did not receive the email, ask them to check spam folders. If they can’t find it, contact us with the email address of the person and we will help.)

Thank You Note After the Survey Closes
(in a regularly scheduled communication with stakeholders: newsletter, weekly folder, etc.)

Thank you to all who participated in the survey. Your opinions matter a great deal, and we are glad to have heard from so many of you. We will receive the compiled survey reports from SAIS soon, and we will be using the information to guide (strategic plan, school initiatives, goals for the coming year, etc.)

{Appropriate signature}