Here are some of the best questions for a middle school student survey about attendance and motivation, and practical tips to help you create them. You can also generate surveys like this instantly using Specific’s AI survey builder.
Best open-ended questions for middle school student attendance and motivation surveys
Open-ended questions let us dig below the surface and really understand what’s going on. They’re our best tool for capturing authentic student voices and the “why” behind trends—especially since research shows student motivation and feelings about school play a big part in attendance and academic success. [3] Use open-ended questions when you want context, emotion, or to illuminate new issues.
Can you describe how you feel about coming to school most days?
What makes you want to attend school regularly?
Are there certain things that make you less likely to come to school? Please share examples.
What helps you stay focused and motivated in class?
Is there anything your teachers or school could do to help you feel more motivated to attend?
Have you missed school recently? If so, what were the main reasons?
Tell us about a time this year when you felt especially motivated at school. What was different?
What would make school feel more welcoming or exciting for you?
How do your friends affect your decision to attend school?
If you could change one thing about your school to help students want to come more often, what would it be?
When you ask for stories and examples, you turn abstract feelings into actionable insights. Notice how specific, open prompts can uncover the challenges and solutions students really care about.
Top single-select multiple-choice questions for attendance and motivation
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want quantifiable trends or quick benchmarking. They reduce cognitive load by making answers easy—important for younger students or anyone less verbal. You can also start a conversation with a multiple-choice, then dig into the “why” using follow-up open questions (manually or with AI-powered followup). It’s all about balance.
Question: How often do you feel excited to come to school?
Almost every day
Most days
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Question: What’s the main reason you miss school?
I feel sick or unwell
Family responsibilities
I don’t feel motivated or interested
Bullying or social issues
Other
Question: Which of these helps you feel more motivated in class?
Interesting lessons
Supportive teachers
Fun activities or clubs
Friends at school
Awards or recognition
When to followup with "why?" Use follow-ups when you want the story or reason behind a choice. For example, after “What’s the main reason you miss school?” ask, “Why does that have the biggest impact on your attendance?” That’s where you find actionable solutions, not just symptoms.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” when you suspect you haven’t covered every option. This allows students to share unique barriers or motivators you didn’t predict. Asking a followup (“Can you describe what ‘Other’ means for you?”) can reveal surprising insights and new trends in absenteeism or motivation that traditional lists miss.
Using NPS questions with students: does it make sense?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) isn’t just for customers—it works perfectly for schools tracking satisfaction and engagement, too. For a middle school survey, asking a classic NPS question like, “On a scale from 0–10, how likely are you to recommend our school to a friend your age?” gives you benchmark data to spot at-risk students and observe changes over time. Combine this score with a simple “Why did you give that score?” followup to reveal what’s working and what’s not. Try an NPS survey for middle school attendance and motivation instantly.
This approach works: research shows that a positive school climate and higher satisfaction directly reduce chronic absenteeism and boost academic achievement. [3]
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are the real superpower behind conversational surveys. Without them, you risk misinterpreting answers—or worse, missing a breakthrough insight. Specific’s automatic AI followup questions generate smart, contextual probes just like a thoughtful interviewer does, pinning down reasons and motivations in real time. That means richer, more actionable feedback—without the endless back-and-forth emails later.
Student: "Sometimes I just don’t want to go."
AI follow-up: "What are the main reasons you don’t want to attend on those days?"
Compare that to no followup: you’re left guessing if it’s illness, motivation, or family. In the context of chronic absenteeism—which has jumped from 15% to 30% in Minnesota since 2019 [1]—clarity about barriers is crucial for intervention.
How many followups to ask? Usually, two or three well-placed probes are enough to uncover the real answers, especially with students. Specific lets you set this limit and gives respondents the option to skip if needed, streamlining the experience and reducing survey fatigue, while still capturing rich stories.
This makes it a conversational survey: Each response is treated as the start of a dialogue. You’re not just collecting answers; you’re having a conversation, which keeps students engaged and often leads to deeper honesty.
Easy analysis, even with lots of unstructured text: AI-powered survey response analysis tools (see how to analyze responses and the AI survey response analysis feature) make it simple to summarize and understand the big takeaways, even when you have hundreds of open-ended replies. You can chat with your data, uncover trends, and act fast—no matter how much qualitative feedback you collect.
Automated followup questions like these are a game-changer—try generating a survey and experience the difference first-hand.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or other AI) for great attendance and motivation survey questions
If you want to brainstorm with AI yourself (using ChatGPT or any GPT-4 based builder), prompts are everything. The clearer you are, the better your survey questions.
Start with a basic prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for middle school student survey about attendance and motivation.
But you’ll get even better results if you give the AI context. For example, explain your goal, audience, and what you want to do with the data:
I'm a school counselor looking to understand why some middle school students miss school and what could help them feel more motivated. Suggest 10 open-ended survey questions that can uncover practical barriers and positive motivators.
After your initial list, use categorization to make your survey clear and targeted:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Now, you can focus on what matters most—drill down with another prompt like:
Generate 10 questions for categories "Barriers to Attendance" and "Sources of Motivation".
It’s that easy to iterate—AI will keep refining questions as you add more details about your students or your school’s challenges. Specific’s AI survey generator is built around this prompt-driven approach, letting you edit and improve surveys by simply chatting with the AI (AI survey editor).
What is a conversational survey (and why is AI-powered better)?
A conversational survey feels like texting, not filling out a worksheet. With AI powering the questions and followups, every student gets a tailored experience—a real conversation that adapts to their answers. This is a huge leap from traditional, static surveys where every respondent follows the same path, regardless of what they share.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
|---|---|
Static, one-size-fits-all | Dynamically adapts questions based on responses |
Prone to unclear answers | Clarifies and probes with follow-ups instantly |
Hard to analyze lots of text | Automated AI insights and summaries |
Boring and easy to abandon | Feels personal and engaging (like DMs) |
Slow to get actionable info | Instant highlights and trends for action |
Why use AI for middle school student surveys? When you want honest, useful answers about attendance and motivation, students need to trust the process and feel heard. AI-led conversations feel safe, low-pressure, and adaptive—leading to insights that can really move the needle on absenteeism and student engagement. Plus, being able to instantly create a survey and analyze responses makes your job so much easier. Specific’s experience stands out here: everything from survey creation to follow-up to insights is streamlined and interactive for both you and your students.
Whether you’re running a single survey or launching ongoing check-ins, AI survey examples from Specific make collecting feedback seamless, actionable, and genuinely student-friendly.
See this attendance and motivation survey example now
Ready to engage your students and understand the real reasons behind attendance patterns? See what’s possible with an AI-powered conversational survey—get unique insights, boost response rates, and make a difference with every response.