Here are some of the best questions for a middle school student survey about school climate, with tips for building them. Want to generate your own engaging survey? Specific can help you build a school climate survey in seconds.
Best open-ended questions for middle school student survey about school climate
Open-ended questions give students freedom to express their thoughts. These are essential when you want to understand real feelings, find out what drives perceptions, or surface issues you may not have anticipated. Letting students answer in their own words is especially powerful for climate surveys—qualitative feedback uncovers both strengths and blind spots.
Research shows that middle school students’ perceptions of their school’s climate are linked to both academic and psychological well-being, and these perceptions can evolve rapidly throughout their school years. By inviting honest, open responses, you can track these shifts and build a school culture around what truly matters to students. [1]
If you could change one thing about your school to make it a better place for students, what would it be?
Describe a time you felt supported by a teacher or school staff member. What made that experience stand out?
When do you feel most comfortable and safe at school? What helps create that feeling?
Are there moments when school feels stressful or unwelcoming? Tell us about them.
How do students usually help each other here? Can you share an example?
What does “respect” look like at your school, both from students and adults?
What, if anything, makes you feel left out or unheard during school activities?
How well do school rules work for you and your friends? Is anything confusing?
Can you describe your experience with bullying or teasing—whether you saw it happen or experienced it yourself?
Tell us something that makes you proud to be part of your school community.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for middle school student survey about school climate
Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you need to quantify sentiments, benchmark change over time, or jump-start a conversation with easier, low-friction questions. For middle school students—who may find open-ended responses tiring—these quick picks lower barriers and can quickly surface areas worth a deeper look. Follow-up questions can then help dig deeper into particular answers.
Question: How safe do you feel at school most days?
Very safe
Somewhat safe
Not very safe
Not at all safe
Question: Which of these is most important for a positive school climate at your school?
Supportive teachers
Fair rules
Good friends
Clean and comfortable spaces
Other
Question: Have you seen or experienced bullying at school this year?
Yes, often
Yes, sometimes
Rarely
No
When to follow up with "why?" Adding a follow-up “why?” works well when you want to understand reasoning behind responses. For example, if a student marks “Not very safe” on the safety question, you might ask, “Can you share what makes you feel unsafe?” This invites valuable stories and context, which you can further probe (automatically, with conversational survey logic) to get actionable insights.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? “Other” is crucial when your choices may not fully capture everyone’s perspective. This lets students surface priorities or concerns you haven’t listed. With automated follow-ups, you can instantly ask, “Can you share what you meant by 'Other'?”—which often uncovers surprising and actionable information that standardized options miss.
NPS-type question for measuring student climate and belonging
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is typically used to gauge loyalty, but it also adapts powerfully to understand school climate among students. You simply ask: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this school to a friend?” The follow-up question then digs into the reason for their score. Because NPS is easy to track over time and segment by respondent, it serves as an effective “climate baseline” to see whether efforts are paying off in practice. If you want to try it, there’s a ready-made NPS survey builder for school climate in Specific.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are the backbone of conversational surveys. Instead of leaving answers vague, Specific’s AI asks smart, personalized follow-ups in real time—just like an expert researcher would. That’s especially valuable in school climate surveys, since students often begin with short or unclear replies. Automated probing saves you from endless email back-and-forth, keeps conversations flowing, and draws out the “whys” and real-life stories you need to understand the full context. You can learn more about the automatic AI follow-up question feature in detail.
Middle school student: “I don’t always feel included.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share an example of when you felt excluded, or what made you feel that way?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, two or three well-timed follow-up questions give you enough depth without making the survey feel endless. With Specific, you can set a “maximum followup depth” and even allow students to skip ahead if they’ve already shared what’s needed.
This makes it a conversational survey: Each response leads naturally to the next question, creating a smooth, human-centered experience that keeps students engaged and honest.
AI-powered analysis makes sense of responses: Even with hundreds of open-text replies and layered follow-ups, AI survey response analysis makes it easy to extract themes, patterns, and actionable insights. Check out how to quickly analyze survey responses with AI for detailed steps.
Automated follow-ups are a new way to dig deeper—give it a try, build a survey, and experience the difference for yourself!
How to prompt ChatGPT (or other AI) for great school climate survey questions
You can easily “coach” AI tools like ChatGPT to help brainstorm and refine your survey questions. Start simple, but remember: more context always yields better, more relevant ideas.
A good starter prompt:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for middle school student survey about school climate.
If you give more detail, your results get smarter. You might add your role, what you want to learn, or share school dynamics:
I’m a school climate coordinator hoping to strengthen student belonging and trust. Please suggest open-ended questions that encourage candid student feedback on teacher support, peer interactions, and school safety.
After you’ve generated an initial list, you can ask AI to organize for you:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
To build a deeper survey, pick the key categories and prompt again:
Generate 10 questions for categories “peer relationships” and “school safety”.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey feels like a real-time, interactive chat—not a dry set of forms. Students respond in their own words, the AI interviewer asks instant follow-ups, and the whole thread adapts based on what matters most to them. This flexibility lets you reach students where they are and collect richer details, faster.
The difference is night and day compared to traditional survey creation methods. Here’s a quick comparison:
Manual Surveys | AI-generated Surveys |
|---|---|
Static, form-based questions | Dynamic and adaptive conversations |
Time-consuming to build/edit | Instant creation with GPT-driven templates |
Follow-ups require manual review & email | Real-time probing with automated AI logic |
Hard to analyze open-ended text | AI distills unstructured feedback into themes on demand |
Why use AI for middle school student surveys? With AI, you can move quickly from concept to delivery—chatting your way to better survey questions and then deploying a survey that actually listens, probes, and respects each student’s voice.
This approach works especially well for climate, inclusion, or social-emotional learning topics, which rarely fit into box-ticking forms. For an AI survey example tailored to school climate, try the Specific generator.
Specific delivers best-in-class conversational survey experiences with natural, student-friendly interactions and instant analysis—making the survey process simple, insightful, and, most importantly, engaging for everyone. For practical steps, read our full guide: how to create a middle school student survey about school climate.
See this school climate survey example now
Try a conversational survey and see how easy it is to uncover what matters to students, probe for deeper insights, and turn feedback into action—with dynamic follow-ups and instant AI summaries.