Applicants should expect the full review process from application submission to final approval to take up to 90 days.  DPSCD endeavors to review and process all applications in as a timely manner as possible however review time may vary due to several factors.  For more information, please review the information provided in Understanding The Review Process.

In order to help expedite your review as much as possible, please be sure that all required response information and supplemental documents or information needed are submitted completely and clearly with your application.  Failure to submit any required response information or materials with your initial application, or delays in responding to requests for additional information at any stage in the process, may result in significant delays in the review process for your application. 

The DPSCD External Research Application Review Committee meets monthly to fully evaluate and make recommendations on next steps for any newly received external partner research applications.  In order to fairly allow each application the full amount of time required for a comprehensive evaluation by the Review Committee, a maximum of six (6) applications per month are scheduled for committee review at each monthly meeting. 

Applications are scheduled for committee review on a rolling basis as they are received and approved through the initial screening stages however during high volume periods the earliest available committee review agenda opening may be more than one month out.  Applicants will receive a status update notification confirming the date of their application’s scheduled committee review as soon as it has been scheduled.

For more information on all stages of the process, please review the information provided in Understanding The Review Process.

No. All surveys conducted within Detroit Public School Community District by external partners or for purposes beyond the scope of standard curriculum and instruction require prior written approval.

Requirements of university-based Institutional Review Board (IRB) processes vary by institution but in most cases applications requiring IRB approval from the researchers’ institution should be prepared to provide documentation of that approval (or documentation confirming the status of the proposed research as “IRB Exempt”) with your application proposal to DPSCD. 

If your university requires approval to conduct research from DPSCD prior to conducting its own IRB process, please contact us directly at dpscd.research@detroitk12.org to review options for supporting this process.

Please be aware that an IRB approval for the applicant’s university or institution may be a prerequisite requirement for consideration but does not guarantee final approval by DPSCD. 

As general rule, proposed research activities should not disrupt instructional time.  All research applications will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for soundness and justification of research design. 

If you believe that you have a uniquely compelling reason that requires specific aspects of your research or data collection activities to be conducted during instructional time, please be clear in your application about what those reasons are and what steps you plan to implement in the processes to limit disruption of instructional time as much as possible. 

The Review Committee will take these factors into consideration but may still ask you to adjust your proposal to further minimize or eliminate activities that disrupt classroom instructional time.  In some cases, applications deemed to involve excessive or unjustified disruption of instructional time may be rejected on that basis.

All applications will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for justification and soundness of research design.  In general, however, DPSCD teachers or administrators applying to conduct research for external purposes (such as their own dissertation or academic thesis pursuits) should avoid as much as possible conducting research on students they work directly with or staff who report directly to them. 

The potential for bias or coercion of results inherently present in these scenarios is significant and typically not in the best interest of either the researcher or the sample students or staff involved.  Unless you have a uniquely compelling reason that would justify limiting your research to a building you work in, DPSCD teachers and staff should focus on students or staff from other buildings as the target population for their research.  If you believe that you do have a uniquely compelling reason that requires your research to be conducted in a building that you work in, please be clear in your application about what that reason is and what steps you plan to implement in the data collection and analysis processes to mitigate any potential bias or risk to participants. 

The Review Committee will take these factors into consideration but may still ask you to adjust your proposal to focus data collection activities on an independent sample if the risk of potential bias, discomfort, or exposure to participants is deemed too significant.

No. Schools are not authorized to provide or release data directly to external research partners on their own and should never be requested to.

All data requests for research purposes must be approved by the district Central Office via the online application process and, if approved, will be provided directly to approved research partners by the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Analytics only subject to approved procedures and guidelines. 

All hard copy and electronic data received or collected as part of an approved research partnership activity must be securely stored to prevent unauthorized access, disclosure, or loss of information.  All applications to conduct research in partnership with DPSCD must include a detailed description of data security and disposal plans, including but not necessarily limited to how data received or collected as part of the proposed research will be managed and destroyed.  Disposal plans should include post-project timelines for shredding of hard copy documents, permanent deletion of digital data, and disposal of any other records collected such as photographs, audio or video recordings, and other artifacts. 

Any significant modification requests to existing agreements require an supplemental research partnership application detailing specific justifications and requirements for the additional approvals.  The online application portal will allow you to indicate that your request is for a modification to an existing agreement and the request, if approved, will be drafted as an amendment or addendum to your existing agreement.

Some common examples of research agreement modifications requiring a supplemental application include, but are not necessarily limited to:  

• Requests for additional data elements to be provided in data-sharing agreement
• Requests to add new data collection instruments or methods not previously approved under current agreement (e.g., adding a new survey or adding a request to conduct observations or interviews, etc.)
• Modification of data collection instruments or methods previously approved under current agreement (e.g., adding new questions to a previously approved survey instrument, etc.)
• Requests to change or expand focal population(s) of research (e.g., expanding scope to access or collect data on additional schools not previously approved under current agreement, expanding scope of population(s) to collect data on at schools already approved under current agreement, etc.)
• Modifications to named individuals approved receive or collect approved data under existing agreement.

Potentially. For research activity involving researchers collecting data on school grounds or directly with students, all individual researchers approved to be in schools under the scope of the agreement will still be required to complete background checks and receive clearance from the DPSCD Police Department prior to beginning that work.  Any fees that may be required for background checks or additional clearances are the responsibility of the researcher(s).  

If your approved research request requires any additional clearances to be completed before research activity can begin, you will receive additional information about how to complete those upon receipt of your fully-executed agreement.

For more information about background check requirements for adults on school properties, please see the links provided below.

• MDE Criminal History Check Laws
• DPSCD Police Department