Use the School-WISE Scales
The surveys can be added to a study or evaluation you already have planned. This page sets out what that involves, from your first email to your results.
What you would be adding
Sites so far have covered 5 to 25 schools, with 200 to 613 students and 48 to 256 school staff.
Student survey
For students aged 7 and older. It covers water, sanitation, hygiene, menstrual health, and waste management, and is asked in private by trained study staff using a tablet.
School staff survey
For teaching and non-teaching staff. It covers the same five domains from the staff perspective.
Facility assessment
A structured observation of each school's WASH infrastructure, using methods recommended by WHO and UNICEF. It lets you set people's experiences beside conventional service levels at the same schools.
Cognitive interviews
Conversations with students and staff about how they understand the questions. They are used to check the wording before the survey begins.
From first email to results
Most of the calendar time goes to approvals and adaptation. The fieldwork itself has taken between one and six weeks.
Reply within about a week
Write to us
Tell us where you work and what you have planned.
Agree how we will work together
You agree to use the standard School-WISE methods and to share de-identified data with the consortium. The data sharing guidelines set out the terms.
About 2 to 3 months
Get approval and adapt the surveys
You obtain local ethical approval. We work with you on translation and wording so that the questions fit the local context. The surveys have already been run in Amharic, English, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Nepali, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Train your team
The study team provides training and materials. No specialist WASH knowledge is needed.
1 to 6 weeks
Collect the data
Your team runs the surveys and the facility assessment at the participating schools, on tablets or phones. So far this has taken from one week in Peru, at ten schools, to six weeks in Rwanda, at 21 schools.
Get your results
Results are returned for your own sites. Participating schools, local development partners, and government officials receive short summary reports.
What this looked like in Uganda
The first School-WISE site, run by Eawag with the Swiss Water and Sanitation Consortium in March and April 2024.
- Schools
- Ten schools in two towns, six primary and four secondary.
- Cognitive interviews
- 48 students and 20 staff at two schools, completed in four days.
- Surveys
- 613 students and 162 staff, interviewed on 19 days between 4 March and 5 April.
- Who was asked
- About one in ten students at each school, spread evenly across grades, and the teaching and non-teaching staff who were available.
- What the team learned
- Working with a local research partner who spoke the local language made it easier to introduce the study at each school and to oversee data collection.
What partnership involves
You commit to
- Running the School-WISE surveys within work you already do in schools, usually by adding them to a planned or ongoing study or evaluation
- Obtaining local ethical approval
- Contributing de-identified data to the shared consortium database
You receive
- Early access to the tools
- Training and technical support from the study team
- Results returned for your own sites
- Opportunities for co-authorship on project publications
- Membership in a global network of WASH measurement practitioners
The data you collect remain yours.
Contributing sites hold sole ownership of the data they contribute, unless a different agreement is reached. You can publish your own analyses without seeking permission. The one restriction is that sites do not publish site-specific WASH insecurity scales, because that would undercut the development of a comparable one.
Authorship follows ICMJE criteria. Every site lead is offered at least consortium authorship on the primary scale development paper.
There are limited funds to support implementation. We work with partners to identify complementary funding and to develop joint proposals where there is a good fit.
Instruments and documents
These are the instruments now in use. They are longer than the final scales will be, because this phase is about deciding which questions to keep.
- Request a copy
School-WISE Student Survey
The full student instrument, covering all five domains.
- Request a copy
School-WISE School Staff Survey
The staff instrument, covering the same five domains.
- Contact us first
Facility assessment protocol
Provided with training and translation guidance when you plan a site with us.
- Download the PDF
Call for Partners
A one-page summary of what partnership involves, for sharing with colleagues.
- Download the PDF
Data Sharing, Attribution, and Consortium Guidelines
How data are shared, how authorship is determined, and what partners commit to.
Questions partners ask first
Can we adapt the tools to our context?
Yes, within limits. Core items stay standardized so that results can be compared across sites. We work with you on wording and translation, and you can add your own questions alongside the core items.
Do we need prior work in WASH?
No. The study team provides training and materials. Experience with survey data collection helps, but it is not required.
Are the scales finished?
Not yet. The current phase determines which items perform consistently across sites, so that the final scale is as short as possible without losing valuable information.
Can we get the raw data?
Requests for access to consortium data are considered case by case. Write to us and describe what you want to do.
Tell us where you work and what you have planned
Write to Joshua Miller, co-principal investigator. We reply to most messages within about a week.