Best questions for parent survey about parent-teacher conferences

Here are some of the best questions for a parent survey about parent-teacher conferences, along with practical tips for writing them. If you need to build your own survey, you can generate a parent-teacher conference survey in seconds with Specific.

Best open-ended questions for a parent survey about parent-teacher conferences

Open-ended questions are powerful for uncovering parent opinions that might not surface through multiple-choice options alone. They let parents share detailed stories, context, or concerns, which often leads to richer feedback we can act on. Research shows that including open-ended questions dramatically increases the quality and depth of feedback; for example, a large hospital study found that 76% of respondents wanted to leave comments, highlighting their preference for more expressive answers. [1]

1. What did you find most valuable about the recent parent-teacher conference?

2. Were there any topics you wish had been addressed in the conference?

3. Can you describe a moment during the conference that stood out to you, either positively or negatively?

4. What suggestions do you have to improve future parent-teacher conferences?

5. Do you feel the conference helped you understand your child’s progress? Please elaborate.

6. How comfortable did you feel voicing your concerns or questions during the meeting?

7. Were any of your concerns unresolved? If so, please tell us more.

8. Is there anything you wish teachers had communicated more clearly?

9. What aspect of the conference format (online, in-person, timing) worked well for your family?

10. Anything else you'd like to share about your conference experience?

It’s important to balance open-ended questions with others, as too many can lead to response fatigue, increasing the chance of incomplete surveys. By using platforms that support conversational, AI-powered interactions, you can keep parents more engaged and make answering these deeper questions feel effortless. [3][4]

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a parent survey about parent-teacher conferences

Single-select multiple-choice questions are ideal when you want to quickly quantify parent satisfaction or surface key issues without overwhelming respondents. These are great for getting an “at a glance” sense of sentiment, or for priming a deeper conversation—sometimes parents warm up with a short answer before sharing more details in follow-ups. Research has shown that closed-ended questions sometimes paint an “overly positive” picture, so pairing them with open-ended or follow-up prompts gives you the full story. [2]

Question: How satisfied were you with your most recent parent-teacher conference?

• Very satisfied

• Satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

Question: Which aspect of the conference did you find most helpful?

• Academic progress updates

• Behavior feedback

• Future learning plans

• Opportunity to ask questions

• Other

Question: How did you attend your conference?

• In-person

• Online video call

• Phone call

• Written feedback only

When to followup with "why?" Adding a "why" follow-up is especially useful if parents select an unexpected or less desirable choice. For example, if a parent chooses "Dissatisfied" about their conference, an automatic follow-up like “Could you tell us what made you feel dissatisfied?” will provide essential context that is otherwise missing. These can be automated with an AI-powered system, making it feel like a natural progression in the conversation. This is critical, since closed-ended questions alone can miss issues lurking beneath the surface. [2]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? “Other” provides an escape hatch for parents who don’t see their experience reflected in the list. When selected, asking “Can you tell us more?” often reveals unexpected needs or issues—insights you can’t anticipate ahead of time, but which drive meaningful improvement if surfaced.

Use NPS questions to measure parent sentiment

NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks parents how likely they are to recommend these conferences to other families, on a 0-10 scale, followed by an open-ended “why.” This question gives you a quantifiable score for tracking satisfaction over time, while also opening the door for constructive feedback from both promoters and detractors. NPS is widely used and simple to embed in your survey, making it perfect for benchmarking the effectiveness of parent-teacher conferences year over year.

If you want to use this proven approach, try our NPS survey template for parent-teacher conferences—it’s ready to go so you can measure and improve in minutes.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions, especially AI-driven ones, are the secret sauce for better context and clarity. They help parents share more when they want, and clarify vague or minimal responses so you get actionable feedback. Read more about our automatic follow-up questions—they make your survey more like an insightful conversation than a cold form.

Specific’s AI asks smart, real-time follow-ups—just like a skilled interviewer would—drilling down to why a parent feels a certain way, what they would improve, or clarifying ambiguous phrases. This saves hours chasing down responses via email and prevents missed opportunities for deeper insight. It makes filling out the survey intuitive and friendly, not like homework.

• Parent: "It was okay."

• AI follow-up: "Could you tell us what would have made the conference feel more useful for you?"

• Parent: "I didn’t have time to ask questions."

• AI follow-up: "Would adjusting the conference format or timing help you participate more actively?"

How many followups to ask? Two to three follow-up questions is often enough to drill down for meaningful context, while keeping the conversation flowing. With Specific, you can easily set this limit and decide to move on once you have the insights you need.

This makes it a conversational survey: Parent input evolves naturally, making the feedback process feel like an actual chat, not a static list of questions.

AI analysis, survey response summaries, and easy insights: Platforms like Specific make it simple to analyze dozens or hundreds of freeform responses. Even with lots of unstructured text, you can analyze survey responses using AI for quick summaries, top themes, and actionable insights.

These AI-powered follow-up questions are a new way to engage parents—try building a survey and see for yourself how the conversation unfolds.

How to prompt ChatGPT or another AI to generate the best survey questions

If you’d prefer to create a survey by prompting ChatGPT or another GPT-based tool, here are some effective prompts to get started. For best results, always give more context about your goals and the unique needs of your school or community.

Start with a general open-ended question prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a parent survey about parent-teacher conferences.

Then, give more context for better results. For example:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for parents who attended recent conferences at our elementary school, focusing on communication effectiveness, inclusivity, and actionable improvements. The goal is to improve future conferences for all families.

After you have initial questions, ask AI to categorize them:

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

Once you’ve identified useful categories, dig deeper on the most relevant area:

Generate 10 questions about inclusivity and accessibility in parent-teacher conferences.

This step-by-step approach lets you refine your survey and focus where you want, ensuring you get questions tailored to your goals, not just generic lists.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys use an AI (or sometimes a human) to talk with parents naturally, just like in a chat. Unlike standard forms, they dynamically ask follow-ups, use tone and phrasing that fits the respondent, and keep the conversation going where needed. This captures richer data and boosts response rates—especially for busy parents who won’t complete long, boring forms.

With an AI survey generator like Specific, you get:

• Automated, expert-quality question generation—just describe your feedback goal and it builds the survey.

• Instant preview and edits via an AI survey editor, which lets you adjust questions in plain language.

• Real-time follow-ups, so you capture full context the first time without endless back-and-forth.

• Built-in AI analysis tools for turning qualitative responses into themes and recommendations in seconds.

Why use AI for parent surveys? Because it’s faster, more flexible, and delivers higher quality insights. You can effortlessly iterate, ask clarifying follow-ups, and even run surveys in multiple languages. If you want to learn about easy setup, check out our guide to creating parent-teacher conference surveys.

If you’re looking for an AI survey example or a best-in-class user experience, Specific lets you craft an engaging, conversational survey in a fraction of the time it takes to write questions manually. Both creators and respondents benefit—the process feels more like a valuable dialogue than a one-sided interrogation.

See this Parent-Teacher Conferences survey example now

Try building a parent-teacher conference survey that’s easy for families to complete and gives you the actionable, personalized feedback you actually need. Specific’s conversational surveys use AI-generated follow-ups and real-time analysis to help you understand your families better.