Conducting External Research
The School District of Philadelphia frequently receives requests from individuals and organizations to conduct research studies, evaluations and surveys involving students, teachers, principals, and administrators. While it is District policy to cooperate with researchers whose projects might benefit education, all individuals and organizations interested in conducting research in the District must have their proposals reviewed and approved by the Office of Research and Evaluation's Research Review Committee. This includes questionnaires/surveys and evaluations of interventions being conducted in the schools. It is incumbent upon the District to ensure that research studies and surveys do not interfere with instruction or require excessive pupil or staff time. Additionally, we review proposals for compliance with Federal regulations concerned with student records, privacy and participation in research studies. Ultimate responsibility for authorization rests with the Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation and the Deputy Chief of Accountability.
We strongly recommend that you read all posted documents to ensure full understanding of the processes and procedures for conducting research, evaluations and surveys within the School District of Philadelphia.
In addition to reviewing research proposals, the Office of Research and Evaluation processes all data requests for the District. Data requests should be made to the Office of Research and Evaluation using the Online Data Request Form. If your request is associated with a research project (which is almost always the case with requests for identifiable data), please indicate this in your data request and, if possible, provide the proposal number. Because of the volume of requests received by the District, it will take at least 20 business days for your data request to be filled (beyond the research review process, if applicable).
NOTE: All new research proposals must be accompanied by a processing fee of $40.00 (effective March 16, 2012). Please submit a money order made out to The School District of Philadelphia along with your proposal. External data requests will be assessed a fee for processing and filling the request. The fee amount will be indicated on your data agreement and you will be invoiced when the data request is filled.
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