STUDENT SURVEY & RISK ASSESSMENT
A comprehensive school-wide bullying prevention program begins with a survey of students to measure the prevalence of bullying, assess school climate, and identify areas of particular concern in a school. Survey results are used to:
- Focus immediate bullying prevention efforts on areas of greatest concern in a given school, thus conserving limited time and financial resources while maximizing effectiveness.
- Motivate faculty and staff to pro-actively address bullying by revealing the experiences of students in the school. Survey results give faculty an opportunity to view the school environment through their students' eyes, and can reveal developing problems that would not otherwise be apparent until they become more severe.
- Provide a baseline assessment, against which the effectiveness of anti-bullying efforts can be measured when a follow-up survey is conducted one year later.
- Communicate to students that the school is interested in their well-being while at school, and in addressing bullying and bias-related behaviors.
- Compare local school survey findings to those of state and national student surveys.
Depending on the needs of a particular school or district, student surveys can be limited to assessing the prevalence of bullying and its correlates, or they can be expanded to include a number of other student behaviors and experiences related to school safety and student health. Additional possible survey topics include student stress level and depressive symptomatology, suicidality, and attitudes and knowledge about sexuality, drugs and alcohol.
Student surveys are best done toward the end of a school year. Rates of risk behaviors, including bullying and problematic social patterns, typically increase over the course of a school year. Therefore, whether surveying is done to provide a baseline assessment prior to enhancing bullying prevention efforts, or to identify areas of concern for intervention, the most useful data will be gathered during the last few months of a school year. Follow-up surveys should be done at the same time of year as the initial survey.
In New Jersey, active parental consent is required by law for students to participate in surveys that contain certain kinds of questions. Districts are obligated to inform parents of their rights regarding student surveys annually, and to provide notification of specific surveys to be conducted during the school year. To ensure ample time to comply with these regulations, the process of developing a questionnaire and composing and distributing a parental consent form should begin as soon as a school or district determines that a survey is advisable.
Survey research is a professional specialty involving questionnaire design & construction; question context, order, and wording; dataset management; sampling methodology and sample bias correction; and statistical analysis and interpretation. The quality and usefulness of survey findings is a direct result of the quality of the survey questionnaire. Contact Spectrum Diversity LLC if your school or district is considering conducting a student survey of any magnitude.
Click here for a .pdf flier about student surveys
Click here for information about Dr. Rodríguez Rust's credentials as a survey researcher
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DrPaula@spectrumdiversity.org or call (732) 735-7209 (OK to Txt)