There are a few guidelines to ensuring a survey is formatted correctly. Overall, the survey should be clean, neat, and intentionally organized. A few things to consider is where to place open and closed ended questions. As well as least sensitive and more general topic questions should be placed at the top of the survey whilst sensitive questions should be closer to the end. At the very end of the survey should be any demographic questions. All instructions on the survey should be clear and concise. Lastly, the format of the survey should be consistent throughout to ensure clarity and avoid confusion.
Survey questions themselves also have a few guidelines to consider. First, like the overall survey, the questions should be clear and concise to avoid confusion from participants. A way to ensure clarity is to avoid double barreled questions. These are questions that ask two or more things within one question. There should only be one question per line. Furthermore, avoid negative questions. These are any questions that include the word “not.” Participants often overlook the word “not” which may lead to questions being answered in a manner they otherwise would not have. Finally, avoid using academic language, use simple terms to ensure participants are competent enough to answer the questions. All of these guidelines ensure the participants ability to answer and address our research question, “What needs do parents/guardians have that if met, would help increase parent involvement in education?”
The question I am using to assess my dependent variable is “How comfortable do you feel interacting with your child’s teachers on a scale from 0 – 10? (0=Not at all, 10= Extremely comfortable).” This question addresses the comfortability attribute of the survey. The question I am using to assess my independent variable is “Is English the primary language spoken in your household?” This question addresses the demographic attributes of the survey. Throughout the research a consistent problem that emerged was in regard to Hispanic families and their language barriers. Many parents expressed uncomfortableness in communicating with teachers in staff due to this barrier.
“How comfortable do you feel interacting with your child’s teachers on a scale from 0 – 10” is an example of a good question because it is clear and only asks about one topic, comfortability with communication. There is little room for misinterpretation when reading and responding to this question. It is also not biased or leading, it does not lead participants to believe that parents should be or are uncomfortable, only to rate the level of comfort. “Is English the primary language spoken in your household?” This question is a simple yes or no question, it is clear and avoids double barreled problems. It also uses simple language that will be easy to understand by someone in which English is not their primary language.