Guilford County Schools



External Research Review ProcessInstructions for ApplicantsIntroductionGuilford County Schools is committed to the support of educational research that protects the best interests of its students, staff and the district as a whole. All external research must be reviewed and approved prior to the researcher contacting school or district staff. Approval through the Research Review Process does not constitute a partnership with GCS, and researcher communication materials must not imply otherwise.Research is a process of focused inquiry with the goal of increasing understanding of some phenomenon. For the purposes of Guilford County Schools, the key element of research is the collection and control of data, because data collection takes time and effort from the people and institutions from which the data is collected, and data, potentially, has significant privacy implications.External Research is research performed within Guilford County Schools by researchers who are either not employees of Guilford County Schools, or are employees of Guilford County Schools doing research for their own purposes, usually as part of graduate studies. Guilford County Schools employees doing research that occurs due to an individual’s assigned area of responsibility, but also fulfills a graduate school requirement, must seek Research Review approval. In doing research to fulfill educational requirements, Guilford County Schools employees are prohibited from performing research activities with students or staff with whom they work as part of their ordinary duties as an employee, due to the potential for bias. However, students in some graduate programs, particularly Masters of Education in Teaching, are required to design and implement small-scale research projects in their classroom, using their own students as subjects. Teachers who propose to do this type of “action research’ are exempted from the requirement that external research not be performed with individuals they teach or with whom they work on a daily basis.Application ProcessTo apply for Research Review, the researcher must fill out the Google Form on the Guilford County schools district website, by going to the GCS Assessment, Research and Planning Research Application webpage, which is only available during the application windows. The application requires a complete description of the proposed research methodology, including the research subjects (including the proposed participating schools), and the protection of human subjects plan (privacy and confidentiality). Any incentives for participation must be described. If there are multiple incentives (e.g. at the personal and school level), both must be noted. The researcher must also include copies of all data collection instruments (unless the researcher is using published instruments where permission has been granted). Any branching of a survey instrument must be fully described by providing a brief sketch (written or graphical) explaining the design.Application WindowsThe application windows for external research projects are:Late Spring for research proposed to take place in the subsequent Fall (the “Spring Window”)Late summer for research proposed to take place in the subsequent Fall (the “Fall Window”) Winter for research proposed to take place in the subsequent Spring (the “Winter Window”)The Spring and Fall windows are for applications for the Fall semester of the same calendar year (e.g. a researcher wanting to apply for permission to do research in the fall semester of 2021 would apply in the Spring or Fall 2021 window). The Winter Window is for the succeeding Spring semester. Applications will generally only be allowed for projects that start in the semester associated with the application window. However, large scale projects by professional researchers may apply earlier, due to the longer lead time needed for complex, large-scale projects. Researchers may contact the Research Review Committee to discuss their future projects, in terms feasibility, GCS research policy questions, and for discussions of what types of supplementary materials will be needed.Consent FormsExternal research projects which intend to include and collect data from students or staff must solicit informed consent from its participants. All staff participants must complete consent forms. All parents or guardians of student participants must also complete a consent form. Students 6th grade or above must also complete consent forms. All consent forms must make clear that consent is voluntary. Students below 6th grade who have signed consent forms from their parents to participate must also be told verbally that their participation is voluntary, and they must be allowed to opt out. All electronic survey instruments must also include a re-affirmation (or reminder) of consent in their cover page.Notification of Acceptance/DenialApplicants will receive a formal acceptance or denial letter once the Research Review Committee completes its review process. Approval indicates that the researcher has permission from the Guilford County Schools to conduct research aligned with the methodology that was proposed and approved. The Guilford County Schools Research Review Committee must be immediately informed of any substantive changes to the approved proposal, and must approve these changes. Important Note: Research Review Approval does not imply a research partnership with Guilford County Schools (partnership agreements are handled on a case-by-case basis for selected, large research projects and/or grants). Approval also does not imply a requirement for school administrators to agree to participate, or to allow their staff or students to participate. Individual principals have the right to refuse participation in district-approved external research projects, and their decisions are final. Researchers must not contact or engage any GCS staff member in discussion about projects unless approval is granted.Review CriteriaGuilford County Schools processes research requests through a Research Review Committee, using a standard scoring rubric. The following are the primary considerations which will be addressed through the Research Review Process.Professionalism of researcher and quality of written application materialsAmount of student and staff needed (including instructional time, non-instructional time, and support staff time, such as preparing data for delivery to the researcher or distributing research materials)Privacy and confidentiality protection for participantsPotential disruption to normal school operationsPotential distress to participantsPotentially controversial topicQuality of study design and methodologyBenefit to students, staff or the district from proposed researchValue to education or another field from the proposed research.Final ProjectGuilford County Schools requests that the final written results of any project approved by the research review process be sent to the Research Review Committee (currently reachable through Kurt Reutter, reuttek@). This allows GCS to learn from and potentially use the findings from external research projects that take place in our district. ................
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