2026 CNM Survey Administration Guide
What is the CNM Survey?
The CNM Survey is an anonymous 15-20 minute survey that is administered to students annually to learn more about student experiences with their current school and student success skills. Education Analytics manages the survey administration in collaboration with the Barr Foundation. The survey is available in five languages: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and Cape Verdean Creole. The survey items are available here and a sample version of the 2026 CNM survey is available to view in Qualtrics here.
How do I administer the survey?
The Education Analytics team recommends that school teams take the following steps:
Identify a primary survey contact to liaison with EA and the Barr team; this can be the principal, a head of a department, or person well suited to lead survey administration.
Establish when the survey administration will take place and logistical details. EA and Barr highly recommend using set aside classroom time to ensure the highest response rates possible. Some questions to consider include:
Which period of the day ensures the majority of students will have an opportunity to take the survey (English class, advisory, homeroom, etc.)?
When does it make sense to administer the survey within the window?
Are there vacations or standardized testing that disrupt the standard schedule?
Do you want conduct multiple survey administrations to capture students who were absent during the first survey administration?
How will you distribute the survey link to students along with proper context and guidance for the survey?
Once the survey administration date and survey contact are established, send that information to EA, so we can tailor our communications to your school’s plan.
Administer the survey and check in with EA to ensure that student response rates are on-par with what is expected. EA will send out response rates after your administration date and upon request.
Logistical Details
The survey administration timeline is January 14th-March 6th, 2026. If you need additional time to complete the survey, please contact barrsurveyadmin@edanalytics.org.
The survey is administered through Qualtrics.
The survey is anonymous, meaning it does not collect student names/emails/IDs. If your school requires a data sharing agreement, please barrsurveyadmin@edanalytics.org.
Your school will receive an aggregated report of survey results in mid-May. Results are also available to view within the CNM Dashboard, which will be updated in early June.
In case of disruption...
Sometimes it's not possible to control for a factor that might disrupt students taking the survey (e.g., a wifi outage, a fire alarm goes off, etc). If that disruption causes the survey webpage to close, those students should start the survey over at the beginning if/when they have sufficient time to complete it. If the disruption is so minor/brief that the survey web page does not close and the survey taker never leaves their seat, they should continue to the same survey they were working on before the disruption.
Helpful Language to Encourage Participation
Language school leaders may provide to teachers responsible for administering the survey:
Our school is participating in a student success skills survey funded by the Barr Foundation. The results of this survey will be used to inform potential growth opportunities in our school, so we hope students will take about 15 to 20 minutes to answer the questions thoughtfully and honestly. Students are given the choice to opt out of the survey, but we ask that you encourage them to complete it, especially considering the short length and immense value in learning about students’ experiences and perspectives. Our hope is to administer the survey each year that we are working in partnership with the Barr Foundation to inform our programs and practice, and so we can see if and how students’ perceptions change over time.
Language teachers may read to students when administering the survey:
Today you are being asked to answer questions about your skills and experiences at school and with your teachers and classes. We’re doing this survey to learn from you about how we can make our school even better, so we want you to be honest when answering the questions. Please keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers to the questions. Your responses are completely private and will be combined with the responses of other students in a report that is sent to our school’s leaders. The report will not identify individuals in any way. You will be given the choice about whether you want to take the survey, and your opinions are very important to us so we hope you will agree to answer the questions. The survey only takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete.