Conducting Research

The district reviews research proposals in August, December and May.

Lexington County School District One encourages research to improve day-to-day educational practices or to contribute to the body of research for the field of education.

As the article titled “Action Research in Education: Addressing Gaps in Ethical Principles and Practices” by Amanda L. Nolen and Jim Vander Putten, which appeared in Educational Researcher, 36(7), pp. 401–407 in 2007, states, “When discussing action research, one must distinguish between joint projects, conducted by a school and an academic researcher, and truly indigenous, insider projects, conducted by a teacher or administrator within a school.”

Therefore, teachers may gather and analyze data at any time if the data is being used solely for the improvement of their own professional practice and if the collection of such data would be part of ordinary instructional procedures for their own students. Any research that goes beyond individual use that is exclusively for improvement of professional practice requires district approval.

In addition, Lexington County School District One accommodates researchers from outside the district whenever their proposals meet district criteria. The district requires that educational research projects conform to ethical standards. Therefore, the district requires researchers, including its own employees, to obtain written parent and/or student permission when using student data and/or work samples in class presentations, academic papers, conference presentations, publications, and similar activities.

APPROVAL CRITERIA

All research conducted in the district must meet the criteria set forth in Board Policy IGB Curriculum Research, as follows:

The research is of value to the district.
The research does not interfere with the educational programs of the district.
The research respects the privacy, informed consent, and due process rights of students and employees.
The researcher agrees to provide the district with a copy of the completed research.

These procedures and criteria are in place to protect students and employees of the district. While the district welcomes research studies, it is important to note that failure to adhere to district policy and procedures will result in denial of the proposal.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY

Lexington County School District One expects college and university faculty members to work with their students to develop, review, edit, and obtain institutional approval of proposals before they are submitted to the district for review. Researchers who are submitting proposals to meet requirements for a degree program at a college or university must submit documentation that their proposals have been reviewed by the institutional review board (IRB) of the college or university and either approved or granted exempt status by the IRB.

The American Educational Research Association adopted a revised Code of Ethics in 2011.

The revised Code of Ethics reminds researchers that informed consent has long been a basic ethical tenet of scientific research on human subjects and, further, that “waivers of consent require the approval of institutional review boards or, in the absence of such boards, from another authoritative body with expertise on the ethics of research before proceeding with such research.” The granting of exempt status by an institutional review board does not necessarily relieve the researcher of the ethical responsibility to obtain informed consent from participants.

PROCEDURES FOR SUBMISSION

If the findings of research projects are to be published or presented outside of the researcher’s school or district (e.g., in papers required for coursework, graduate classes, conference presentations, dissertations, journal articles), research must be approved through the district’s approval process.

Research that will be submitted and/or published as a thesis, capstone project, or dissertation must be approved by both the district’s research committee and the Senior Leadership Team using the formal application and review process. To receive information about that process and to obtain access to the application, please contact the research committee at research-committee@lexington1.net.It is important that all applications be complete. Incomplete proposals may be rejected without review. Please note the following when applying for permission to conduct research:

It is important that all applications be complete. Incomplete proposals may be rejected without review. Each proposal must include:
- Institutional review board (IRB) approval/exemption and a letter of support from the advisor or sponsor (if the proposal is associated with a college or university course or degree program) or authorization for the study (if it is associated with a government or private agency)Data collection and analysis methodology must be adequately described on the application and in the proposal.For all research instruments that are not part of the district’s existing assessment program, copies of the instruments or thorough documentation of instruments with citations from recognized sources must be provided.
- Researchers conducting studies involving students must use the district’s informed consent form and submit assurances that the study is in compliance with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) guidelines.(See FERPA Guide and PPRA Guide.)
- Draft copies of any forms, letters, and other documents that will be provided to participants or their parents/guardians must also be provided to the district.
- The district’s name must be protected on any publication and use of the district’s name cannot be used in any published study without express written permission. Instead, the district should be described by general descriptors such as “a suburban/rural district in the southeastern United States.”

Action Research Approval for District Employees ONLY
For district employees involved in coursework that requires action research, there is an expedited approval process. If you are a district employee requesting permission to conduct an action research project that WILL NOT be used as a thesis, dissertation, or other published work, please complete this form, have it signed by your professor, and send it to the research committee at research-committee@lexington1.net.

REVIEW PROCESS FOR PROPOSALS

Lexington County School District One has a Research Committee that serves as its screening committee to determine whether proposals meet district criteria. If a proposal is recommended by the Research Committee, it can still be denied at the next level of approval, which is the Senior Leadership Team, or by the principal of any school whose teachers or students are asked to participate.

The research review and documentation process is described in board administrative rule IGB-R, as follows:

All requests to conduct research will be submitted to the Lexington County School District One Research Committee for review and determination of recommendations to the Senior Leadership Team for approval. It is not unusual for a request to be denied.
Approval by the Senior Leadership Team does not guarantee that the research will be permitted within a particular school.
If the Senior Leadership Team approves the proposal, the researcher must then seek approval from the principal(s) of the school(s) where the research is to be conducted.
Participation of teachers and students is voluntary.
If students or their records are involved in the research, the researcher must obtain prior written permission from parents/legal guardians in a manner approved by the district.
The Research Committee will meet at the beginning of August, December, and May to approve proposals. Submissions that are not received in time for consideration at one meeting will be held for consideration at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Research Committee.
Proposals that are received between August 1 and May 31 generally require three to six weeks for processing.
Submissions that are received after the regularly scheduled May meeting will not be reviewed until the following September.
The Research Committee reviews requests that are received and makes a recommendation to Senior Leadership level for approval.
Upon conclusion of the research, the researcher must forward a copy of the completed study to the district via email to research-committee@lexington1.net.
The district reserves the right to use research findings for programmatic revision/decision making, as appropriate. The researcher will receive appropriate acknowledgment when his/her findings are used or cited.