Dear Survey Girl,
We are planning on doing the Me and My World survey with our elementary students in May. We want to survey as many students as we can and use the results in our planning for next school year. Since we are at the end of the year, can we survey the 3rd graders and consider them 4th graders so they can take the survey?
Sincerely,
Mulling Many Ways
Dear MMW,
No. The Me and My World survey is appropriate for grades 4 to 6 and should only be used with grades 4 to 6. Yes, at the end of the year, the 3rd graders have likely amassed all of the skills to make them ready for 4th grade, but only real, live 4th graders can take the survey.
Here are a few reasons why: The MMW has a general reading level of 4, but a Flesch Grade Level of 4.4. The readability of the survey might be tougher for students whose reading skills fall slightly below the 4th grade level.
Second, to ensure data quality, surveys are automatically discarded if the students misses too many questions or if the student marks a grade that was not surveyed. If the student gets confused about which grade to mark or leaves the grade field blank, their survey has a greater chance of being discarded.
Third, because I said so. Seriously, the only thing worse than paying a lot of money to survey your students and then finding out your surveys were not able to be scored is having to inform someone that they paid a lot of money to survey their students, but their surveys are not able to be scored.
Just Say No,
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