PEARS Survey Updates

 

September 22, 2026

Submitted by Mary Helmer

This article is intended to discuss two topics:PEARS logo

  • The results of our PEARS survey cleanout campaign.
  • How surveys in PEARS will be impacted by the upcoming change in federal demographics reporting.

PEARS Survey Cleanout

Throughout the course of this project, we went from 1,336 active surveys to 219 -- far surpassing initial projections. This reduction in clutter should provide the following benefits:

  1. It will be easier to find surveys if they are correctly classified as “active,” “inactive,” or “drafts.” Not having dozens of outdated copies of the same survey will help people find in-use, accurate surveys much more easily using the “active” filter.

  2. Connecting survey questions to outcome indicators in action plans should become much less error-prone. Only seeing in-use surveys when selecting questions to tie into outcome indicators should ensure that the correct surveys are being linked (allowing people to use the “Export” feature in their action plan reports to pull the results of those specific survey questions).

  3. It has massively reduced the workload for updating demographics questions to the new federal standards. (More on this below.)

What to do if you need to use an inactive survey:

If you find that you need a survey that was deactivated as part of this project (or for any other reason), you can follow these steps to reactivate it:

  1. In the PEARS Survey section, remove the “active” status filter by clicking the “X” next to the word “active.”
    1. The “created by” filter should automatically be set to your name. If you are looking for a survey created by someone else, remove that filter as well.

  2. Search for the survey you want, either by reading through your surveys or using the search bar.

  3. Open the inactive (or draft) survey.

  4. On the Progress navigation box (to the right of the form), click the “Mark as Active” step.

  5. On the Mark as Active page, click the green “Mark as Active” button.

  6. PEARS will confirm that the survey is now active and ready to be attached to other modules.

Demographics in PEARS Surveys

The federal demographics reporting standards are changing for programming year 2026-2027.

On Oct. 16, PEARS will update their reporting forms (in the CRM, Direct Contacts, Program Activities, etc.) to reflect the new race question/options. Starting in the Oct-Dec quarter of the 2026-2027 programming year, you are required to report contacts using the updated form.

Effective Oct. 1, we will need to update our survey questions to reflect this change. To avoid causing confusion about what can currently be done in PEARS, I will not be publishing instructions on how to update inactive or draft PEARS surveys in this article. However, I will ensure this information is available and published in the first Tuesday Letter of October (at which time the instructions will be actionable).

Active PEARS Surveys with demographics questions

Because of the success of the PEARS Survey cleanout project, I am able to commit to updating the demographics sections for surveys that meet the following conditions:

  • The survey contains demographics questions for race and ethnicity

  • The survey was active on Sept. 16 at 2 pm

If you are the creator of a survey that meets these conditions, I will be emailing you this week to ensure that you would like me to update the survey for you on Oct. 1 and to ask any questions relevant to the update process. You should not do anything at this time.

If you plan to use a PEARS survey (with demographics questions) for an event in October and (a) the survey is currently inactive or (b) you have not yet created the survey, please email me (contact information below) about being manually added to my “Survey demographics updates list.”

Hopefully, I’ll be able to reduce your workload at an already crazy time of year!

Upcoming information about demographics changes

There will be a Tuesday Letter article next week providing more information about the new race and ethnicity question, including guidance for collecting demographics information (e.g., on paper forms).

As stated above, detailed instructions for updating PEARS surveys will be published in October.

Key Takeaways from this article:

  • The PEARS Survey cleanout project was remarkably successful.

  • The demographics questions we use for reporting will change with the next programming year.

  • Because the cleanout project was so successful, Extension Programs will be doing the bulk of necessary PEARS Survey updates.

  • There is currently nothing to do in preparation for the demographics changes. Keep an eye on the Tuesday Letter for upcoming announcements and instructions.

Please contact me at mary58@ksu.edu with any questions about PEARS surveys.

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