Getting honest feedback through teacher survey questions during onboarding can make or break a new educator’s experience. When schools ask great questions for teacher onboarding, they uncover insights that drive better support and retention. Traditional forms often miss the story beneath the surface, but *conversational surveys* are built to dig deeper—surfacing context and nuance that matter most. If you’re ready to start, tools like an AI survey generator make it easy. This guide walks you through 10 essential onboarding questions and practical follow-up strategies for richer feedback.
Why new teacher onboarding feedback reveals critical gaps
The first 90 days in a school are decisive: they set expectations, build confidence, and shape whether a teacher stays or leaves. Effective teacher onboarding is crucial—teachers who go through a thoughtful process are 50% more likely to remain after five years, while nearly 44% leave early due to lack of support. [1] Schools often miss critical pain points during onboarding, including:
Policy confusion: unclear expectations around classroom management, grading, or communication norms
Mentor mismatches: assignments that lack availability or relevant expertise for the new hire
Tech setup frustrations: delayed access to grading portals, lesson plan tools, or support desks
Hidden culture gaps: new teachers feeling isolated or uninformed about school values
Missing these issues is a lost chance to engage, retain, and support teachers to do their best work. That’s where AI-powered automatic AI follow-up questions shine. They uncover hidden frustrations by probing further—surfacing roots of problems traditional checklists miss. When you gather onboarding feedback and actually listen, you address issues before teachers disengage (only 31% are fully engaged in their role nationally). [2]
10 essential teacher survey questions for onboarding feedback
Let’s get specific. Here are 10 questions—each with an AI-driven follow-up to uncover what’s working, what isn’t, and why. Structured as a conversational survey, these prompts encourage teachers to share honestly, rather than checking boxes.
How clear did you find the school's expectations and policies during your first weeks?
Insight: Pinpoints policy confusion and clarity gaps.Can you share an example of a policy that was unclear or especially well explained?
Were any school rules or procedures surprising or different from your previous schools?
Insight: Highlights misalignments or transition struggles.Which differences felt hardest to adapt to, and what support might have helped?
Do you feel you know where to find answers to administrative or HR questions?
Insight: Surfaces hidden barriers to self-sufficiency.When you had questions, who or what was your main resource? Did you wish for a different channel?
How would you rate your initial mentor's availability and helpfulness?
Insight: Exposes mentor mismatches and resource gaps (mentorship increases retention by 30%). [1]Was there a moment when your mentor’s guidance made a real difference? Or a moment you needed more support?
What was your biggest unanswered question during onboarding?
Insight: Uncovers gaps where new hires need more guidance.How did the lack of an answer affect your first weeks? What could have smoothed the process?
Was your teaching team or department welcoming and supportive?
Insight: Reveals team culture and peer support issues.In what ways did your team help—or not help—you feel settled?
How easy was it to set up the technology you need to teach (grading, emails, lesson plans)?
Insight: Finds tech setup slowdowns that hurt productivity.Were there specific tools or systems that were tricky to access or use? Describe the main hurdles.
Did you receive training for the main classroom tech and platforms?
Insight: Checks for training gaps or rushed introductions.Which training was most useful? Where did training fall short?
Who would you turn to first for tech or IT help?
Insight: Highlights whether new staff know key support contacts.Has your tech contact ever solved a problem you had? What was the most frustrating issue you faced?
Reflecting on your first month, how comfortable and confident do you feel overall?
Insight: Measures the big picture experience and signals risk of early turnover.If you could change one thing about your onboarding, what would it be?
AI-powered follow-ups don’t just gather facts—they make it a true conversational survey. Teachers open up, knowing the survey actually listens and adapts—AI surveys can achieve response rates up to 80%, compared to 50% for old-school forms. [3]
How to target onboarding surveys to new teachers only
Timeliness is everything. To actually capture onboarding moments—not vague memories later—it’s critical to deliver surveys at the right milestones, like 30, 60, and 90 days. This requires tenure-based targeting, keeping the focus on teachers who joined recently and skipping veteran staff who don’t need onboarding checks. In in-product conversational surveys, you can set rules so only new teachers get invited, directly in the places they interact (staff portal, onboarding email, LMS, etc.).
Blanket surveys | Targeted onboarding surveys |
|---|---|
Sent to all staff regardless of tenure | Delivered only to new hires based on start date or tenure segment |
Feedback often irrelevant or stale | Fresh, actionable insights tied to onboarding window |
Can cause survey fatigue | Survey frequency caps prevent overload—e.g., one survey per onboarding stage |
Difficult to link feedback to specific onboarding experiences | Easier to tie responses directly to specific weeks or stages |
For example, you might:
Invite teachers to a 5-question survey 30 days in
Follow up 60 days in with tech/support questions
Send a final confidence check at 90 days
This targeted, staged rollout ensures surveys are timely, relevant, and respectful of teacher workloads—and it sidesteps survey fatigue for long-serving staff.
Turning teacher feedback into actionable onboarding improvements
Once feedback rolls in, turning it into practical change is what matters. This is where AI-powered survey response analysis is transformative: it connects the dots, surfaces big patterns, and speeds up the path from insight to action. Instead of manually reading through dozens (or hundreds) of comments, you can chat directly with the AI to ask for structured takeaways by department, topic, or risk signal. Here’s how:
Summarize the top themes new teachers mention about technology setup barriers across all responses.
Highlight any patterns in mentor feedback that predict lower retention—and flag urgent mentor mismatches.
Show me trends in policy-related confusions from 30-day vs. 90-day surveys.
Group suggestions for improving training sessions by department.
You can create separate analysis threads for each department, role, or onboarding stage—spotting systemic problems that might be missed in a spreadsheet. With AI, red flags like poor mentor matching or lopsided workload don’t wait until the annual review. Actionable fixes land in your hands quickly—often in hours, not weeks—so you nail what matters and boost teacher success from day one.
Start gathering teacher onboarding insights today
When teachers feel heard and supported from day one, schools build a foundation for long-term engagement and lower turnover. Start designing great onboarding by capturing real feedback—create your own survey and see how a conversational experience from Specific uncovers what really matters.