• Have you placed the survey in the context of a broader evaluation process?
  
  
• Have you conferred with someone knowledgeable about survey statistics to determine:
  • the number of participants you will need?
  • the reliability of the instrument and its validity for your purposes?
  • whether you will be able to get the information you need from the survey?
  
  
• Are there professionals you can hire to help with the administration and/or interpretation of the survey and results? Are there volunteers you can call on?

• What is the purpose for doing a survey? What do you want to find out?
  
  
• How will you get teachers, administrators, students and the community to commit to the purpose?

Designing Your Survey Strategy

• What will the survey design look like? Cross-sectional? Longitudinal?
  
  
• How will data be collected and used? Is it important that responses be anonymous?
  
  
• Are you allowing adequate time for:
  • defining purpose?
  • obtaining permission?
  • creating a sampling design and selecting respondents?
  • developing the survey?
  • pilot-testing?
  • producing and distributing the survey?
  • completing and returning the surveys?
  • analyzing data?
  • reporting results?
  • developing an action plan?
  
  
• Have you taken into account school vacations, end of year, or other "crunch" times?
  
  
• Are you planning to provide incentives for people to participate? Have you included resources to pay for the incentives, or will they be donated?
  
  
• Have you allocated financial resources for training interviewers about the study and the protocol?

• What survey instrument will you use? Will you develop your own or use an existing instrument?
  
  
• How will you administer the survey instrument? Will respondents have difficulty reading or writing in English? Is there a need to hire translators or to have different language versions of the questionnaire?
  
  
• What costs (e.g. postage, paper, reproduction, incentives, scoring, time for training, scoring and analyzing data, telephone) are associated with the survey? What resources do you have?
  
  
• Will the questionnaire include closed-ended questions, open-ended questions, or both?
  
  
• Are questions clear and unambiguous? Are all reasonable alternative answers included?
  
  
• Do questions contain only one thought? Does the crucial first question clearly introduce the survey and relate to its purpose?
  
  
• Is the questionnaire or interview guide as concise as you can make it?

• Have you pilot-tested the questions and cover letter with a representative subset of potential respondents?
  
  
• Have you thought through procedures for administration and follow-up:
  • Do you need stamped self-addressed envelopes for questionnaire returns?
  • Have you set up an interview schedule or organized the mailing of questionnaires?
  • Have you reminded participants about interview times or followed up with non-respondents to the questionnaire?

• How do you plan to score the survey? Have you checked compatibility between the scoring equipment and the answer sheet?
  
  
• Will results remain confidential and internal or be made public? Are the results intended for self-reflection or for public analysis?
  
  
• If appropriate, how will you publicize the results?
  
  
• Is there time built in for analysis and discussion by school personnel or the community, if appropriate?
  
  
• What action will you take on the data?