The relationship between parents and schools is in the spotlight as part of new research at Charles Sturt University (CSU).

Graduate Certificate (Educational Research) student Kathryn Dalton is currently researching the relationship between parents, guardians and carers, and schools to better understand what an effective relationship between the parties looks like.

Ms Dalton is currently seeking parents, guardians and carers of school-aged children to complete a 20 minute online survey.

"This research will gather data from Australian parents, guardians and carers about their roles, beliefs, and attitudes towards their children's school, and will also examine their perceptions of their children and their children's interactions with the school," Ms Dalton said.

"This research is about hearing the parent voice and is designed to get a baseline understanding of parents' levels of satisfaction with schools and education. I hope it will lead to further research and the designing of more effective frameworks for schools."

Ms Dalton was encouraged to undertake the research project by her own experiences as a parent.

"I had a lot of conversations with other parents about how satisfied or unsatisfied they are about the support and guidance they receive about advocating for their own children through the education system," Ms Dalton said.

"I then went looking to find some answers and I struggled to find many relevant answers from an Australian perspective. Additionally, there was a significant amount of current research from the perspective of schools and the teachers but very little research from the parents, guardians and carers' perspective."

Parents who complete the survey will be encouraged to join a Facebook page and continue discussing the topic. Ms Dalton will use the Facebook page to keep parents updated on the research.

The Facebook page is available from: www.facebook.com/ParentsAndKidsAndEducation

The online survey is available from: www.surveymonkey.com/s/K12parents

The survey will be open until May 2015.