STEP 1: DETERMINING THE PURPOSE OF A SURVEY

When you plan a survey, first consider who will be using the information you gather and for what purpose do they want the information. For example, you might conduct a survey for your school community concerning poor academic performance. The information could be useful to administrators, teachers, parents and students. All of these groups would like to know how serious this problem is for your school (PPA: Gathering Evidence). They would also be interested in various opinions about what causes this problem in your school (PPA: Identify Causes). Also, some open-ended questions could result in some possible policies to reduce the problem (PPA: Develop Solutions). By considering for whom the information is to be gathered and for what purpose they hope to use it, you will have a clearer picture of what questions to ask and what people you will need to approach for answers.

You may obtain factual and attitudinal information with surveys.

• Factual Information on a survey administered only to students might consist of their grade level, gender, and their behaviors. For example, a survey concerning academic performance might ask students their academic average and how much time they spend doing homework.

• Attitudinal Information indicates how people feel and think about social conditions or about public policies designed to deal with those conditions. A survey about academic performance might ask students for their opinions about how academic performance is affected by homework, outside part time work, or sports.

Part of identifying the purpose of the survey is to clearly define the target population, the group of people about whom you wish to know more. For example, you may only be interested in surveying students about academic performance. Focusing on a student target population may provide valuable information about students’ perceptions of the problem, and their opinions about causes and solutions to poor performance. Perhaps your purpose is to compare attitudes and behaviors of high and low performing students. Then, your target population would include equal numbers of both types of students. If your purpose were to gather information from all segments of the community—administrators, teachers, parents and students—then you would obtain more diverse viewpoints.

Defining the target population consists of three steps:

1. Determine the approximate size of your target population. This will help you decide on the method of survey and the size of your sample.
   
2. State the geographic scope of the target population. If the study is about countywide attitudes toward health care services, it is not enough to study people in a single town. On the other hand, if the study relates to a town's policy, do not use a survey of the outer county.
   
3. Indicate what age, occupation, sex, or other characteristics might apply to your target population. A study on how food stamps are used, for example, would focus on a sample of those individuals who receive food stamps.

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STEP 2: CHOOSING A SAMPLE