Request a SCOPE Survey

NSPRA’s SCOPE Survey™

Let Data Make Your Communication Program More Effective

What is a SCOPE Survey?

NSPRA’s SCOPE Survey—or School Communication Performance Evaluation—takes the guesswork out of communication by telling communication leaders how, when and on what topics their internal and external stakeholders want information.

The SCOPE Survey is a proprietary, standardized survey that has been used by nearly 100 school systems across the United States and Canada to capture both quantitative data and open-ended comments. For many of the key questions, NSPRA maintains cumulative, historical data to create benchmarks that clients can use to compare their results with other systems around the country.

The SCOPE Survey can be taken on any smart device or computer and is administered to three broad stakeholder groups: parents/families, employees and community members. (An optional survey for high school students is available upon request.)

Through a series of questions for these stakeholders, the survey uncovers:

Overall perceptions of your school district and its communication effectiveness.
How your key audiences are currently getting information and how they prefer to receive it.
How informed your key audiences are in areas such as district successes and achievements, district goals and plans, leader decisions, district finances, student progress, etc.
Stakeholders' perceptions about how they can provide input and become involved.
Whether communication is understandable, timely, accurate, transparent and trustworthy.

The data gathered in the SCOPE Survey can then be put to immediate use to help your district share information more quickly and efficiently, and ultimately build greater understanding and support for your district’s strategic goals.

What does the survey process involve?

Survey clients complete a brief intake questionnaire, review the survey before it goes live and spread the word once the survey opens. NSPRA does the rest!

NSPRA staff will:

Set up the survey on NSPRA’s survey hosting platform. Although the SCOPE Survey contains many nationally benchmarked questions, we provide the option to customize some questions related to district-specific communication tools, facilities and staff types.
Provide you with target participation rates based on population sizes for the stakeholder groups to be surveyed. The client will have access to a live dashboard for monitoring participation numbers, and NSPRA staff also will provide regular progress updates.
Provide a survey link and QR code along with a toolkit of promotional strategies, messaging suggestions and sample materials for you to use when promoting the survey. The survey open window is typically two weeks, with up to a one-week extension, if needed.
Provide results through a summary report, detailed data spreadsheets and a SCOPE Scorecard comparing your results to national benchmarks. NSPRA staff will also conduct a report review meeting with the client to go over key findings and provide insights into the results.

The SCOPE Survey is provided in English and auto-translated into Spanish at no additional cost. Approximately 40 additional auto-translated languages and options for district customization of all auto-translated languages are available for additional fees.

Why choose NSPRA for your communications survey work?

The SCOPE Survey is designed to align with NSPRA’s Rubrics of Practice and Suggested Measures publication, which provides national benchmarks for best practices in seven critical function areas of communications. Since 2015, NSPRA has been utilizing the survey in conjunction with communication audits and the association owns the data gathered by the nearly 100 districts and educational service agencies, large and small, across the United States that have used it to gain insight into their communication strengths and challenges.

This collected data allows NSPRA to provide SCOPE Survey clients with comparative data in many key areas of communication, so they can see how their results align with other districts across the nation.

The NSPRA team continues to update and enhance the SCOPE Survey to improve the survey experience for users and the reporting data for clients, while also maintaining and adding to the benchmark data that makes it such a valuable tool for evaluating a communication program.

When is the best time to conduct a SCOPE Survey™?

The SCOPE Survey is a standard part of all NSPRA Communication Audit services, but as a standalone survey product, it is very useful for K12 school systems and educational service agencies who:

Previously conducted a SCOPE Survey (a year ago or more) and now want to measure progress after implementing new communication initiatives.
Have a new superintendent or communications director.
Have identified communications as part of a board goal or strategic plan objective.
Anticipate an upcoming referendum or other major initiative where stakeholder support will be essential.
Suspect current communication efforts may be missing the mark for some stakeholders, particularly racially, ethnically or economically diverse populations.

The SCOPE Survey can be administered at any point while a district’s schools are in session.

Next steps

To learn more about NSPRA’s SCOPE Survey™, please fill out the form below. (Be sure to provide an estimate of your enrollment, which impacts pricing.) A member of NSPRA's auditing team will contact you to schedule a time to discuss the survey tool, process and pricing.

First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Phone Number *
School District/Organization Name *
School District/Organization State *
School District/Organization Student Enrollment
What led you to inquire about a SCOPE Survey for your school district/organization? *
By when do you hope to have a completed SCOPE Survey report?

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