Best questions for elementary school student survey about school cleanliness

Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about school cleanliness—and simple tips on how to create them. You can build your own interactive survey in seconds with Specific’s AI survey generator.

Best open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about school cleanliness

Open-ended questions let students share thoughts in their own words. They’re great for surfacing honest feedback, deeper stories, and unexpected ideas you’d likely miss with only multiple-choice. We use them when we want students to express feelings, describe situations, or explain “why” about school cleanliness.

But heads up: open-ended questions have higher nonresponse rates (around 18%) than closed-ended ones (usually 1-2%)—and sometimes even higher—so they shouldn’t be overused. Still, over 75% of survey respondents tend to add comments when they truly care, and school leaders often find these comments extremely valuable for improvement. [1][2]

1. What do you notice most about how clean or dirty your school is?

2. If you could change one thing to make our school cleaner, what would it be?

3. Can you share a story about a time when a part of the school was very clean or not clean?

4. How do you feel when you see litter or mess at school?

5. What do you think students can do to help keep the school clean?

6. Do you have ideas for helping everyone take care of their classroom or playground?

7. Is there a place in the school that you think needs more cleaning? Which one?

8. What cleaning rules do you think are most important? Why?

9. What do you wish teachers or staff knew about keeping the school clean?

10. If you could make a poster or slogan for school cleanliness, what would it say?

These questions work best when students know their voices matter—and when you keep it fun and friendly. If you want more personalized ideas, the AI survey builder can instantly generate fresh questions for your goals.

Which single-select multiple-choice questions work best?

Multiple-choice works when you need clear, easy-to-compare numbers. These are ideal for quick polls, when starting a sensitive topic, or when students may struggle with open-ended writing. If you want to “break the ice,” it’s less stressful for students to tick a box and then open up later. Combine these with a follow-up question to deepen understanding.

Here are some favorites:

Question: How clean is your classroom most days?

• Very clean

• Mostly clean

• Sometimes clean

• Rarely clean

• Never clean

Question: Which part of the school do you think is kept cleanest?

• Classrooms

• Hallways

• Cafeteria/dining area

• Playground

• Restrooms

• Other

Question: How often do you try to help keep the school clean?

• Every day

• Several times a week

• Maybe once a week

• Rarely

• Never

When to follow up with “why?” Adding a “why” after a choice helps you dig deeper. If a student says, “Rarely clean,” asking “Why do you feel your classroom isn’t clean most days?” can uncover missing supplies, unclear rules, or other issues that multiple-choice alone would miss.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? If your list of answers might miss something unique, use “Other.” Sometimes the best feedback comes from the unexpected answers. Use a follow-up to prompt for details (“Which other place do you mean? What is it like?”) so you don’t leave insights on the table.

Should you use an NPS-type question with students?

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) asks, “How likely are you to recommend [something] to a friend?” For schools, you might tailor it to, “How likely are you to tell your friends your school is clean?” NPS works well for understanding overall satisfaction, even among younger students. It gives you a quick measure to track over time and helps spot changes in perception. If you want to create a dedicated NPS survey for this purpose, try our NPS survey builder for student cleanliness.

The power of follow-up questions

Adding follow-up questions is a game-changer. In fact, research shows that conversational surveys that use follow-ups capture much longer, more specific replies—53% had over 100 words per answer—versus just 5% of standard open-ended surveys. [3] You can read more about the value of automatic AI follow-up questions in conversational surveys.

Specific’s AI surveys shine here. The AI understands what a student says and asks friendly, real-time follow-ups, providing richer context—just like a caring adult might do in a one-on-one talk. This saves you the headache of chasing students for more details later and lets the conversation feel natural and even fun.

• Student: “The playground is messy.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell me more about what makes the playground feel messy? Are there certain times or things you notice most?”

How many follow-ups to ask? Two or three follow-ups are usually enough for deep insights, but you’ll want a setting that lets you move on after you get what you need. Specific’s survey builder gives you control to skip or continue as needed, so you balance depth with keeping student attention and prevent fatigue. [4]

This makes it a conversational survey: follow-ups are the secret sauce. Instead of one-way forms, you build a two-way chat that keeps students engaged and respected.

AI-powered analysis, easy insights: Even though free-form answers can get long, AI can group, summarize, and analyze responses quickly. Here’s how AI makes sense of survey responses so you never get lost.

Painful, unclear responses become rare. Try generating your own conversational survey to see how much easier it is to get genuine student input—and how naturally specific follow-up questions come together.

How to prompt ChatGPT (or any GPT) to generate better school cleanliness survey questions

You can harness AI models (like ChatGPT or Specific’s AI builder) to brainstorm even more thoughtful questions. Short prompts work, but adding context helps AI get closer to what you need:

For a quick start, try:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about school cleanliness.

If you want sharper, more tailored results, describe your needs—like this:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a school cleanliness survey. The audience is elementary school students age 8–12 at a public school. We want answers we can act on. Avoid questions about cafeteria food and focus on cleanliness and student involvement. Tone: friendly and supportive.

To organize a long list, ask:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, if you see categories you care about most (like “Cleaning Habits” or “Student Involvement”), prompt further:

Generate 10 questions for categories ‘Cleaning Habits’ and ‘Student Involvement’.

The more context you provide, the smarter the AI’s output will be—whether you use ChatGPT or Specific’s instant AI survey generator.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey feels like a real chat—not just a cold list of questions. The survey listens, adapts, and follows up based on what the student just said. This approach keeps kids engaged, getting you deeper, more truthful answers that lead to action.

Why use AI for elementary school student surveys? We’ve seen that AI’s ability to ask smart follow-ups in a conversational way leads to more authentic feedback and much faster analysis. An AI survey example built in Specific shows how even a long survey can feel manageable, thanks to chat-driven interaction and instant results.

Most survey tools feel like paperwork. Specific gives both students and educators a best-in-class conversational experience: it makes feedback easy and (dare we say) even enjoyable. And if you want a step-by-step guide to create a school cleanliness survey, we've got the perfect resource.

See this school cleanliness survey example now

Ready to design a student-friendly, AI-powered survey that uncovers genuine feedback on school cleanliness? Make your survey conversational, actionable, and easy to analyze—start building yours today for fresh, honest insights.