• Washoe County School District (WCSD) Office of Accountability

    Department of Research and Evaluation

     

    Procedures and Regulations Governing Research within the

    Washoe County School District

     

    The Washoe County School District has a highly diverse student population that offers a wide range of contexts for conducting educational research and program evaluation. Consequently, we receive numerous requests from organizations and individuals each year. Unfortunately, we can only approve a limited number of projects to minimize the disruption to our schools.  Only proposals that will result in clear, timely, and direct benefits to the district will be considered for approval.

    The Office of Accountability, Department of Research and Evaluation, reviews, approves, and monitors all research conducted in the Washoe County School District. If you wish to conduct research inside WCSD schools or plan on contacting anyone associated with the District (administrators, teachers, parents, students, or staff) as part of your research study or evaluation, you must submit a research application with your proposal to the Office of Accountability for review and approval. 

    DOWNLOAD RESEARCH APPLICATION HERE

    To safeguard the rights of WCSD students, parents, and staff, all requests to engage in research within the Washoe County School District, including research conducted by WCSD staff, must be reviewed and approved by the Office of Accountability prior to project initiation.

    Prior completion of certified Human Subjects Protection training (NIH, CITI or equivalent) is required. Training resources: https://humansubjects.nih.gov/resources or https://about.citiprogram.org/en/series/human-subjects-research-hsr/

    Research participants may not be recruited, and data may not be collected until the Office of Accountability issues a written research approval letter to the research applicant.

     

    CONDITIONS OF RESEARCH APPROVAL:

     

    1. Per Washoe County School District Board Administrative Regulation 1141, no research material or research recruiting materials may be circulated, distributed, or posted on any District premises, or distributed though District email. This prohibition includes research information, surveys, or recruitment material intended for students, parents, teachers, administrators, or other staff. Only material that is directly related to a specific classroom curriculum for a legitimate pedagogical purpose may be distributed on District property or through District resources (e.g., District email).
    2. The Washoe County School District will only provide data to investigators on a limited basis.
    3. Participation by any student, parent, teacher, administrator, or school is voluntary. School principals may decline to participate in external research projects for any reason.
    4. Researchers are required to maintain strict privacy/confidentiality safeguards to assure the anonymity of participating students, parents, teachers, administrators, schools, and the District. Reports of this research must not identify the Washoe County School District, WCSD schools, administrators, teachers, or students, except by prior written permission of this office.
    5. The use of research data collected from the Washoe County School District for this study is restricted to the purpose specified in the research application. It is not permissible to use data collected for this study for the purpose of any other study, or for an extension of the current study, without prior written consent from this office.
    6. All research conducted within the Washoe County School District must conform to the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and to all federal regulations regarding Protection of Human Subjects.

    You may submit your WCSD research application before obtaining IRB approval from your college or university. If WCSD approves the study, you will receive provisional approval contingent upon obtaining approval from your college or university IRB. You must not initiate the study or collect any data until both approvals are in place.

    SUBMISSION VIA EMAIL IS REQUIRED

    Please submit the completed application and all required supporting documents to: WCSD Office of Accountability, Department of Research & Evaluation, Dr. Norma Velasquez-Bryant: n.velasquezbryant@washoeschools.net