Best questions for preschool teacher survey about family engagement

Here are some of the best questions for a preschool teacher survey about family engagement, plus tips on how to create smarter surveys. You can generate a conversational survey with Specific in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for family engagement surveys

Open-ended questions let us dig into the “why” and the “how,” surfacing experiences that structured answers can’t capture. They help teachers provide insights into how families participate, the barriers they see, and ideas for deeper collaboration—especially important since research shows that strong family engagement directly improves preschoolers’ social and academic growth. [1] Use these when you want in-depth feedback, stories, or examples—not just simple numbers.

1. What strategies have you found most effective for encouraging family involvement in your classroom?

2. Can you describe a family engagement activity that was particularly successful (or not) this year?

3. What challenges do you face when trying to involve families in school activities or learning at home?

4. How do you communicate with families about their child’s progress and needs?

5. What support or resources would help you better collaborate with families?

6. How do families typically respond to invitations or outreach from school?

7. Can you share a story that illustrates positive family engagement in your classroom?

8. What feedback have families shared with you about your engagement approaches?

9. In your opinion, what could the school do differently to support stronger family engagement?

10. How do you balance your time and responsibilities when engaging families, and what could improve this?

Open-ended prompts like these surface nuanced feedback and guide actionable improvements, especially as results show engaged families foster better literacy, social skills, and school readiness. [1]

Top single-select multiple-choice questions for family engagement

Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when we need to quantify feedback or offer a gentle starting point for further discussion. They provide clarity, easy-to-analyze data, and can help teachers save time. For example, when you want to gauge general trends or quickly see what most teachers experience, these structured questions shine. Sometimes, offering clear options lets respondents feel comfortable before the open-ended prompts dig deeper—a crucial step if you want teachers to share honestly and thoughtfully.

Question: How often do you communicate with families about classroom events or activities?

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Rarely

Question: Which method do you prefer for engaging families?

• In-person meetings

• Email or text updates

• Parent workshops/events

• Other

Question: What is the biggest challenge you face in family engagement?

• Lack of time

• Language or cultural barriers

• Low family interest/participation

• Unclear expectations

When to follow up with "why?" Always follow up when you want to go past surface-level answers. If a teacher selects “Low family interest/participation,” ask, “Why do you think this is the case?”—this uncovers root causes and helps you design new strategies for engagement.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Use “Other” when you want to learn about outlier experiences or unexpected practices. The follow-up can reveal brilliant ideas or challenges you may never have considered, which often lead to actionable changes.

NPS-type question for family engagement

The Net Promoter Score ("NPS") approach goes beyond satisfaction—it asks about loyalty and advocacy. For preschool teacher surveys on family engagement, NPS helps you measure how likely educators are to recommend your school’s family engagement initiatives to peers. This one number, paired with a follow-up question on the “why,” is a goldmine for understanding both strengths and pain points in your collaboration efforts.

Try building an NPS survey for preschool teacher family engagement—it’s a fast, proven way to benchmark and benchmark improvements over time.

The power of follow-up questions

If you’re aiming for rich, unbiased feedback, follow-up questions are the secret weapon. We can ask a “why” or clarification automatically, in real time—like an attentive researcher would do. Learn how AI follow-up questions work. This isn’t about interrogating people; it’s about uncovering context.

• Preschool teacher: “I find it challenging to engage some families.”

• AI follow-up: “Could you tell me more about the challenges—are there certain barriers or patterns you’ve noticed?”

Compare that to not asking a follow-up: you’d just log the vague answer and miss the details that help drive action.

How many followups to ask? Usually, 2-3 targeted follow-ups are enough. With Specific, you can set the maximum and even let the survey skip to the next topic once the essential insight is captured—no wasted time, just actionable data.

This makes it a conversational survey: a true back-and-forth that builds trust and draws out deeper perspectives, turning the feedback process into a human experience.

AI analysis, response categorization, summary: Even with lots of open-ended responses, AI makes it effortless to analyze all the qualitative feedback—summarizing, extracting patterns, and surfacing what matters most.

Automated follow-ups are a new way of approaching surveys. If you haven’t tried them, it’s genuinely eye-opening to build a survey with smart followups—the difference in depth and clarity is huge.

How to prompt ChatGPT for better survey questions

Start by asking for a quick brainstorm—simple, right? Give this to ChatGPT:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Preschool Teacher survey about Family Engagement.

This works, but AI does far better with specific context. Share who you are, what your school values, what “family engagement” means in your setting, or even specific challenges you want to investigate:

I am a preschool director looking to improve our family engagement practices. Our families speak several languages. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a survey for our teaching staff to explore both successes and barriers to family involvement, including communication, events, and at-home learning.

Then, get AI to organize the output so you can see patterns:

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

Review the categories, decide which matter most, and then prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories: Cultural Barriers, Communication Preferences, At-Home Learning Support.

This way, you build a focused, context-aware survey—much like Specific’s AI does when you use its survey generator.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys feel like a chat—not a form. The AI asks, responds, and probes naturally, so teachers feel heard and motivated to share more than just checkboxes. The difference between manual and AI-driven surveys isn’t just speed—it’s engagement, insight, and adaptability.

Why use AI for preschool teacher surveys? You’ll collect richer, more actionable feedback because the survey listens, adapts, and helps you analyze. Pair these with AI-powered analysis and you gain full context—on what educators need and how families can get more involved. Check out our guide to creating a survey for family engagement for step-by-step advice and more examples.

Specific provides the most advanced, enjoyable experience for creating and sharing conversational surveys on family engagement. Teachers, respondents, and admins all benefit: teachers enjoy the conversational format, and leaders unlock precise, real-time insights they can use. Whether you use templates, prompt chat, or edit your survey with natural language using the AI survey editor, feedback collection is always smooth and tailored.

See this family engagement survey example now

Ready to capture richer, more honest feedback? See how an AI-powered, conversational survey makes it effortless to collect and analyze genuine insights from preschool teachers—so you can strengthen family engagement in your school today.