How To Create a Climate Survey

Overview

Climate Surveys are a type of Waypoints that allow school and district leaders to gather anonymous feedback from 3rd-12th grade students and school staff on three key domains: Belonging + Relationships, Well-Being + Safety, and Purpose + Engagement. The survey is designed to help schools identify patterns, address barriers to learning, and connect climate data to Wayfinder content and next steps.

This article is intended for System Admins and School Admins/Principals who will be setting up Climate Surveys for their district or school. 

Climate Survey are configured on the Waypoints page. For an overview of the Waypoints assessment suite, see our What Is Waypoints? guide. 

This article contains the following topics:

How To Create a Climate Survey

Note for School Admin and Principals: School Admins and Principals can only set up Climate Surveys if the function is enabled by a System Admin. If don't see the option to set up a Climate Survey, contact your school/district's System Admin. 

Step 1: Name your Survey

  1. Navigate to "Waypoints" from the left-hand navigation menu.

  2. Select "School Climate Surveys" on the left.

    • If you do not see a "School Climate Surveys" option, it means they have not been enabled in the Waypoints configuration. If you are a System Admin, click on "Manage Waypoints" to climate surveys and/or turn on the ability for the School Admins and Principals to create surveys. 

  3. If this is your first climate survey, click the "Create School Climate Surveys" button in the middle of the page. 

    • If a climate survey has already been created, you can instead use the "Create Survey" button under the School Climate Surveys dropdown.

  1. Name your survey and read/check the Acknowledgment

  2. Click "Next" to go to the next step

Step 2: Schedule Your Cadence

  1. Next, enter the start and end dates of your first administration window.
  2. To add additional survey windows (up to four total), click "+ Add administration window (max 4)" Each window can have its own start and end dates. 
    • Note: Once your survey is created, you can add new administration windows (up to 4 total) and change the start or end dates at any time. You cannot delete an administration window once it's open or has passed.
  3. Click "Next" to continue.

Step 3: Select Your Participants

  1. On the "Select Your Participants" screen, choose which roles, grades, and groups will receive the survey. Only students and staff rostered in Wayfinder will be included. 
    • System Admin will see two tabs: "Select by School" and "Select by Role + Grade." Use the school tab to select specific schools, or use the role + grade tab to select by student grade cohort (3rd–12th grade) or School Staff. Selections apply across both tabs.
    • School Admins and Principals will see a single-panel view. Select from Students (expandable by grade and class) and School Staff.
  2. System Admin, School Admin, and Principals automatically have access to climate data. Use the "Share Climate Data with Teachers" setting to allow Teachers and Counselors to review climate data as well.     
  3. Click "Next" to continue.

Step 4: Choose Your Prompts

  1. Use the tabs along the top of the page to set up your prompts for each participant group. 
  2. Choose your response format. There are two response formats available: emoji scale or likert scale.

  3. Next, select your prompts. Our suggested prompts will be pre-populated.

    • To swap a prompt, use the Domain and Prompt dropdowns in each row. Each domain has a bank of questions to choose from.

    • To add a new prompt, click "Add a prompt" 

    • To remove a prompt, click the X on that row.

    • To reorder prompts, drag the grip handle on the left side of the row.

  1. If you'd like to collect demographic information, select from the available demographic questions at the bottom of the page.

    • Click on each question for details on the answer options. Some answer options can be edited using the "Edit Answer Options" button.

  2. Click "Preview Survey" at any point to see exactly how the survey will appear to participants.
  3. Click "Next" to continue.

Note: If you'd like to request a custom prompt, email support@withwayfinder.com with your prompt and the subject line "Request a Prompt." Include your school and district name, and we'll review your request and follow up within 2 business days.

Step 5: Review + Create

  1. On the "Summary" screen, review all your selections
  2. Click the "Edit" link next to any section to jump back and make changes.
  3. Click "Preview Survey" to do a final check of how the survey will look to each participant group.
  4. When everything looks correct, click "Create Climate Survey." You'll see a confirmation screen once the survey is successfully created.

Note: Once your survey is created, you can add administration windows (up to 4 total), change window dates, and change prompts until the first window opens. After that, you cannot change prompts or delete a window that's open or has passed. Review your settings carefully before creating the survey.

 

How Students + Staff Take the Survey

During an open survey window, participating students and staff will see a climate survey tile on their dashboard. Review the images below to see what the tile will look like for each participant group. 

For all participants, the survey opens with an intro screen ("Your Voice Matters!") showing the survey name, an estimated completion time, and a note that responses are anonymous and any question can be skipped. Participants can then click "Start Survey" to begin. Once climate surveys are submitted, responses cannot be changed. 

3rd-5th Grade Student View

 

6th-12th Grade Student View

 

Teacher View
Counselors, School Admins, and Principals will see a similar To-Do List on their dashboard

 

Intro screen - same for all participants

 

Reviewing Climate Survey Results

Once responses are submitted, results appear on the Waypoints page for System Admins, District Admins, and Principals. Teachers and Counselors will also see results if enabled during the survey set up (see #2 here).

Note: Results are suppressed for groups with fewer than five responses to protect anonymity.

Overview Tab

The Overview tab provides a high-level summary of climate data across all three domains.

  • Climate Domain Scores chart
  • Completion Rate chart
  • Top, Most Improved, Room for Growth domain tiles
  • Schools table (System Admin only) or Class table (School Admins and Principals only)

Prompts Tab

The Prompts tab shows how participants responded to each individual prompt.

Group Insights Tab

The Group Insights tab compares domain scores across demographic groups—for example, by gender or grade level for students, or by primary role or years of experience for staff.

 

Permissions by Role

Role Access / Permissions
Students Can take the survey
Teachers  Can take the survey as School Staff; can view results if enabled by survey creator
Counselors Can take the survey as School Staff; can view results if enabled by survey creator
School Admins + Principals Can create + configure surveys for their school if enabled by System Admin; can take the survey as School Staff; can view results
System Admins Create + configure surveys; view all results; manage feature access

 

Additional Resources