DataVista: School Surveys
A New Way to Gather Insights That Drive Action
Independent schools depend on meaningful data to make informed, strategic decisions. The new NAIS DataVistaSM brings all your school surveys together under one trusted platform—so you can easily collect stakeholder feedback, benchmark your results, and move from data to action with confidence.
NAIS DataVistaSM school surveys help you gather valid, actionable feedback from board members, families, alumni, faculty and staff, and school leaders—so you can make confident decisions and track progress over time. Instruments are standardized for reliability, customizable, and delivered on a secure platform with summary reports, benchmark reports, and optional cross-tab analysis.
Why NAIS Surveys
- Valid and Reliable: The questions are designed and tested by survey scientists in order to produce valid and useful results.
- Customizable: You can add new questions to the instruments to make them applicable to your school and community.
- Useful Comparisons: Standardized instruments allow you to benchmark your school’s results against results for groups of schools with characteristics you choose.
- Year-to-Year Trends: Using the same questions year to year allows you to track trends in your stakeholders’ feedback.
- Full Service: NAIS staff will work in close consultation with you to implement the survey from configuration through reporting, saving you valuable time.
- Self-Serve Access: Easily setup and administer surveys independently through NAIS’s secure online platform, giving your team flexibility to run surveys on your own timeline.
- Secure Data: Your data stay with a trusted source and remain available for your analysis and tracking of trends.
- Integrated Information: Combine data from stakeholder surveys with trends and benchmarks of your school’s data in DASL to gain valuable insights into key leadership issues.
How It Works
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- Purchase and Access: After purchasing Tier 1, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a step-by-step PDF guide and walkthrough video to help you get started.
- Set Up Your Survey: Your team will configure the survey directly in the platform by entering setup information, selecting timing, and removing questions.
- Review and Administer: Once your survey is configured, you can preview it to ensure everything looks right, then administer it to your selected audience.
- Close and Report: When the survey closes, you’ll receive a Summary Report directly within the survey platform.
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- Purchase and Intake: After purchasing Tier 2 or Tier 3, you’ll receive a confirmation email with a customization form to share details such as timing, logo, and additional custom questions.
- Configuration and Preview: The NAIS team will configure your survey based on the information you provide. Within 10 business days, you’ll receive a preview link for review and approval.
- Administration: Once approved, NAIS will administer your survey through our secure platform and provide a ready-to-send invitation message to share with your respondents.
- Close and Report: Within three business days of survey closure, you’ll receive your Summary Report and Benchmark Report. Optional Cross-Tab analysis is available to deepen your insights.
- Data Debrief (Tier 3 Only): Tier 3 purchasers receive a data debrief with a member of the NAIS team. During this session, we’ll support with interpreting your results and help you organize findings for strategic action.
Available Surveys
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Do you know how well your school’s culture aligns with your mission and values? The AIM: Assessment of School Culture (ASC) survey provides a comprehensive look at how different members of your community experience diversity, inclusion, and belonging. This survey gathers feedback from students, parents, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees, and alumni to help schools understand what they’re doing well and where there’s room to grow.
The ASC explores perceptions of climate, respect, inclusion, and the school’s commitment to multiculturalism. Results offer a powerful lens for identifying strengths, uncovering gaps, and informing strategies to build and sustain an inclusive school community.
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The most effective boards take time every year to assess their performance in an effort to hone their leadership ability and better serve their schools. With this confidential survey, trustees can assess their personal effectiveness, the board’s performance as a whole, and how these affect the board’s strategic ability, fiduciary responsibilities, and partnership with the head of school.
The Board Self-Assessment Survey is divided into two parts. Part I addresses how well the board performs in relation to NAIS’s Principles of Good Practice for Trustees, while Part II assesses individual trustee performance and identifies focus areas for the coming year.
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How well does your board support the long-term success of your school? The Board Effectiveness Survey helps schools evaluate board performance across key areas of governance, ensuring alignment with best practices and the school’s mission.
This assessment invites trustees to reflect on board operations, financial and legal responsibilities, partnership with the head of school, and overall board culture. It also explores areas such as continuous improvement, strategic focus, and trustee engagement.
Results provide actionable insights that help boards identify strengths, highlight opportunities for growth, and strengthen governance practices to better serve their school communities.
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Never has it been more important for schools to collect hard data on what they deliver. From academic preparation to community service work, this valuable tool will give you the facts on the many ways your school has contributed to your alumni's success.
The College-Age Alumni Survey is divided into eight sections, including educational and vocational plans, preparation for and selection of college, the overall college experience, and communication with the alum's independent school. An alumnae version of this survey is also available.
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How well did your school prepare students for life after college? The Post-College Alumni Survey helps schools understand the long-term impact of their programs by capturing alumni reflections on their educational experiences, career paths, civic engagement, and ongoing connection to their alma mater.
This survey explores how effectively the school prepared graduates for college, career, and life, while also assessing their sense of belonging, purpose, and pride in the school community. Results provide valuable insights into outcomes, strengths, and opportunities that can shape advancement efforts, communications, and future programming.
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What drives engagement and retention at your school? The Faculty and Staff Satisfaction Survey helps school leaders understand the experiences, perceptions, and priorities of their employees across all roles—faculty, administrators, and staff.
The survey explores key areas such as professional growth, compensation and benefits, work environment, leadership, communication, and school culture. Results provide actionable insights into what employees value most and where improvements can strengthen morale, performance, and retention.
By identifying trends in satisfaction and alignment with the school’s mission, this survey empowers leaders to create a more supportive, equitable, and engaged workplace community.
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Why do families choose not to enroll after being admitted? The Families Admitted But Not Enrolled Survey helps schools understand the reasons behind enrollment decisions and identify opportunities to strengthen the admission experience.
This survey gathers candid feedback from families who were accepted but declined to enroll, exploring factors such as admission communication, financial aid, school climate, and perceptions of academic quality. Results provide valuable insight into how prospective families view your school and what influences their final choice, helping you refine messaging, strengthen yield strategies, and enhance the admission process.
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It is best practice for boards to evaluate the head of school on an annual basis. This confidential survey lets board members evaluate the overall effectiveness of the head of school in meeting their annual goals and in performance of day-to-day work such as program management, fundraising, and board-head relations.
The Head of School Assessment Survey is divided into three parts. Part I addresses how well the head performs in relation to NAIS’s Principles of Good Practice for Heads of School, Part II assesses the head's performance in meeting individual goals, and Part III identifies priorities for the coming year—a good way to get a head start in goal-setting.
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Do you have a clear picture of how your students are experiencing school life? The Independent School Health Check (ISHC) surveys provide valuable insight into student experiences and perceptions of school climate. These surveys are available in Middle School and Upper School versions, each designed to capture the perspectives of students at different developmental stages.
The ISHC explores key areas such as academics, belonging, relationships, and overall well-being, giving you a meaningful snapshot of the student experience. Streamlined and easy to administer, the surveys allow you to collect critical feedback quickly and efficiently. Results help schools identify strengths, uncover emerging issues, and guide strategic actions that enhance student engagement and school culture.
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Why are families choosing to leave your school—and what can you learn from their feedback? The Parent Exit Survey helps schools understand the key factors behind families’ decisions not to re-enroll, from academics and school climate to financial, cultural, or personal reasons.
Parents share candid feedback about their experiences, perceptions, and satisfaction across a range of areas including teaching quality, communication, inclusiveness, and overall school fit. The results provide valuable insight into retention trends and opportunities to strengthen the student and family experience for those who remain.
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Do you know how pleased your parents are with your school's services or what attracted them in the first place? This survey provides valuable information on parents' satisfaction with your school's academics, services, communications, school climate, expenditures, and admission and selection process. In addition, this survey comes in elementary only and elementary through high school versions.
The Parent Satisfaction Survey is divided into various sections, each requesting information on parents' satisfaction with various aspects of the school's academic program and services, and the criteria they used in selecting your school. This survey is available for K-12 schools and K-8 schools.