Research FAQ

The Guilford County Schools Research Review Committee is responsible for ensuring that research conducted within GCS follows ethical, legal, and quality guidelines. Applications are reviewed by the Research Review Committee throughout the year.

If you are a current GCS employee, go to "Data & Research" under "Instructional Support" in the secure GCS Employee Portal for more information about research and data requests.

All research being used as part of obtaining a degree at a higher education institution (e.g., Master’s project, Dissertation) and research with the aim of publication (e.g., in academic journals, conference presentations, websites, news outlets, etc.) must be reviewed and approved. Process questions should be e-mailed to Kurt Reutter (reuttek@gcsnc.com)

GCS does not allow external researchers (e.g., university students) who are not also GCS employees to complete class assignments or other unpublished works such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc., with GCS students, staff, or families. 

Guilford County Schools (CGS) is committed to the support of educational research that protects the best interests of its students, families, staff and the district as a whole. All external research must be reviewed and approved prior to the researcher contacting school or district staff for recruitment.  Approval through the Research Review Process does not constitute a partnership with GCS, and, if the project is approved, communication with GCS staff and prospective participants must not indicate otherwise.

Research is a process of focused inquiry with the goal of increasing understanding of some phenomenon. In order to ascertain this knowledge, collection of data through interviews, surveys, and observations is often required. The data collection process requires time and effort from the people and institutions from which the data is collected and has potentially significant privacy concerns. As such, GCS makes efforts to minimize the time required by participants for approved research and strives to protect participants’ privacy.

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, (e.g., some Masters of Education in Teaching programs), 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 (but must still seek Research Review Committee approval).

Review Criteria

Guilford County Schools processes research requests through a Research Review Committee, whose members include both experts in research and in other aspects of the district. 

The following criteria are used by the RRC when reviewing all projects:

1. Research ethics and bias: Research applications with ethical problems or that do not include all necessary protections for participants (e.g., consent/assent forms, clear description of risks, explanation of incentives) will be rejected. In addition, research with a high potential for bias (e.g., completing interviews with colleagues) is likely to be rejected.
2. Feasibility of implementation: Research whose methodology is unlikely or impossible to implement (e.g., if the requestor lacks the resources to complete the research as written, or if the number of participants exceeds reasonable expectations, or occurs outside the scope of practicality) is generally rejected by the RRC.
3. Risk and intrusion: Research applications involving gathering intimate details from students, parents, or staff (e.g., mental or physical health, sexual orientation, political party support, wealth, etc.) is generally rejected by the RRC. Likewise, any methodology that involves more than negligible risk to participants will be rejected by the RRC.
4. Benefit to GCS: Research conducted within Guilford County Schools must have a direct benefit to the students, parents, and/or staff within the system. If similar data is already being collected within GCS, the RRC may reject the proposal or may offer applicant access to the data already collected. The RRC requires that all approved research submit summary documents (e.g., reports, papers, etc.) after research is concluded.
5. Cost of participation: Both physical resources (e.g., physical space, materials, etc.) and human resources (time to participate, disruption of typical schedules) are considered by the RRC. Research whose benefits do not outweigh the costs of participating will be rejected by the RRC.
6. District data requirements: Research applications requiring GCS to provide institutional data on students, families, or staff, must consider legal and privacy requirements such as FERPA (https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html), PPRA (https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/content/ppra), and IDEA (https://sites.ed.gov/idea/). Requests that do not sufficiently protect student, family, or staff privacy will be rejected by the RRC. Requests that are large in scope and require significant contributions from GCS staff to produce may be rejected due to the human resource costs as identified in (5).
7. Quality of materials: The RRC considers whether research application materials are clearly and consistently written, free of errors, and complete. Applications not meeting standards in these areas may be rejected by the RRC.

Application Process

To apply for Research Review, the following is a list of what is required for the GCS External Research Application:

1. The following must be entered into the application web form:
   1. Contact phone #
   2. Contact e-mail address
   3. Principal Investigator name(s)
   4. Sponsoring Organization name(s)
   5. Proposed start date of project
   6. Proposed completion date of activities with GCS
   7. Project name
2. The rest of these items must be e-mailed to Kurt Reutter: reuttek@gcsnc.com 
3. Completed “Research Review Application,” a PDF document which asks for the following:
   1. Abstract
   2. Purpose of research project
   3. Research question(s)
   4. Description of research methods (including who the proposed participants are, how many participants you hope to recruit, and the activities and time commitments expected of each participant)
   5. Data collection and analysis timeline
   6. Requirements from GCS (e.g., data requests, staff support required, office materials, etc.)
   7. Plan to protect participants’ privacy
   8. Intended use of outcomes or results
   9. How your project benefits GCS
4. Resumes/CV(s) from the primary investigator(s)
5. Any instrumentation documents (e.g., surveys in full with any “skip logic” clearly notated, interview questions, observation rubrics, focus group questions, etc.)
   • Note: If using copyrighted materials that cannot be supplied in full, a description of the materials including name of the instrument, number of items, expected length to complete, and what variables are measured, must be included.
6. Copies of any recruitment materials (e.g., flyers) and a description of how they will be distributed
7. Description of any incentives and how they will be provided (e.g., “every participant will be mailed a $5 gift card,” “Upon project completion a random number generator will be used to select one participant to win an iPad and an e-mail will be sent to inform them.”)
8. IRB documentation from external institution (if completed - note that an external IRB approval is not required to submit your research to GCS for review)

Researchers may contact the GCS Research Review Committee to discuss their future projects in terms of feasibility, GCS research policy questions, and for discussions of what types of supplementary materials will be needed by e-mailing reuttek@gcsnc.com. The Research Review Committee suggests submitting fully completed applications as early as possible (at least six months prior to onset of research activities is recommended). No guarantees are made by the committee regarding approval timelines.  

Consent Forms

External research projects which intend to include data from students, parents, or staff must solicit informed consent from its participants. All staff or parent participants must complete consent forms. All parents or legal guardians of student participants under the age of 18 must also complete a consent form in most cases. Students in 6^th grade or above must also complete assent forms written in developmentally appropriate language. All electronic survey instruments must also include a re-affirmation (or reminder) of consent prior to beginning the survey.

Consent forms must include the following elements:

• The purpose of the research
• Expected duration of participation and procedures that will be followed by participants
• That participation is voluntary and may be revoked at any time. (note: students in Pre-K to 5th grade whose parents/guardians have signed consent forms must also be told verbally that their participation is voluntary, and they must be allowed to opt out at any time, although assent forms are not required)
• Any foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing (if any)
• Any prospective research benefits
• Limits to confidentiality
• Incentives for participation
• Whom to contact for questions about the research and participants’ rights

Notification of Acceptance/Denial/Resubmission

Applicants will receive a formal acceptance, denial, or deny with opportunity to resubmit e-mail once the Research Review Committee completes its review process. Approval indicates that the researcher has permission from Guilford County Schools to conduct research within the confines of the methodology and timeline that was proposed and approved. The GCS Research Review Committee must be immediately informed of any changes to the approved proposal, and must approve these changes before they are utilized within GCS. Guilford County Schools reserves the right to cancel approval for any project due to special circumstances (e.g., changing guidelines resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic). If this occurs, the researcher will be notified by e-mail regarding expectations and next steps (e.g., whether changes in methodology are possible for continued approval or whether the project must stop entirely).  

• 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 GCS personnel, students, or their families to agree to participate. Individuals have the right to refuse participation in district-approved external research projects, and their decisions are final. Researchers must not make any attempts to recruit GCS participants unless approval has been granted.

If an applicant receives a “denial with opportunity to resubmit” e-mail, this indicates that the applicant must make the requested changes and resubmit their project before the Research Review Committee will review their project. It does not indicate that approval will necessarily be granted upon resubmission.

Final Documentation

Guilford County Schools requires that the final written results (such as academic articles, summary reports, posters, etc.) of any project approved by the research review process be sent to the Research Review Committee (reuttek@gcsnc.com) within 6 months upon completion of research activities. This allows GCS to learn from and potentially use the findings from external research projects that take place in our district to improve student success and learning. Please note that these written results and the findings within may be shared both internally within GCS as well as publicly (such as on the GCS website).

Guilford County Schools (CGS) is committed to the support of educational research that protects the best interests of its students, families, staff and the district as a whole. Collaborations with research experts outside of the district provide opportunities both for the district to learn context-specific information about the state of its programs and practices, while also informing the broader research literature. Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs) differ from external research because the aims and methodology of the research are created through a collaborative process between members of GCS and external partners.

Steps in Establishing a Research-Practice Partnership in GCS

To enter into a Research-Practice Partnership with GCS, we require external partners to first submit a tentative research proposal by completing the form here.

Research Proposal Components:

1. Contact info

2. Proposed timeline

3. Description of research goals or questions

4. Tentative proposed research methodology (including who the proposed participants are, how many participants you hope to recruit, and the activities and time commitments expected of each participant)

5. Tentative work allocation plan, including names of any known GCS collaborators (i.e., who does what)

6. Any already-developed measurement tools (e.g., Surveys, Rubrics, Interview protocols, etc.)

 

Following any revisions resulting from discussions between external partners and GCS, a comprehensive Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) must be completed and signed by both parties prior to the onset of any research activities.