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Research Request

Announcement: 

  • The Richland One Research Committee has closed the submission period for research proposals for the 2025-2026 school year.  

     

Conducting Research in Richland One:

Application Review Process: 

All proposals for doing research within the district are to be submitted to the Research Committee administered by the Office of Accountability, Assessment, Research and Evaluation.  A research proposal must be submitted if your research includes any of the following: interaction with students, teachers, administrators, District Staff, and/or observations at a school and/or access to data that is not readily available on the web. 

The Research Committee consists of a chair and two other members from the district and will be expanded to relevant district and school administrators as necessary depending upon the scope of the research request. Each committee member independently reviews research proposals with the following criteria in mind:

  • the proposed study’s potential benefit to the district
  • the soundness of the proposed study’s research design
  • the amount of time required of participants
  • the number of participants required
  • the matter of whether participants should be compensated
  • the legal, physical or psychological risks the subjects are exposed to
  • the extent to which participants will be informed about the study.

Research Application Forms:

The completed application forms must be submitted electronically. Note, the electronic application link has been removed due to the 2025-2026 proposal review period being closed.  Applications will reopen September 7, 2026. 

  • Action Research - For students conducting research as part of a course requirement. Action research is generally limited to a single semester course and is not published or otherwise released. Action research components.
  • Dissertation Research – For students conducting research for a dissertation or thesis. Dissertation research components.
  • Government & Institution Research – For government agencies, state and private institutions that wish to conduct research, whether for publication or not. Government & Institution research components.

NOTE: Richland One Teaching Staff:
As a Richland One teacher, you do not have permission to access your student’s data for researcher purposes and must go through the committee.  Richland School District One 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.

Application Submission Procedures: 

The completed application forms must be submitted electronically.  It will take a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks to review your proposal during the “open” research application review window. Research will not be approved during major statewide testing times (see calendar for confirmation of those dates) and review periods may take longer during peak times of start and end of school. Correspondence asking that the proposal be expedited will not be accepted.

Researchers are not to contact any person of interest for your research at the district or schools directly. All research requests must first be presented to the Richland One Research Committee. The Committee will contact applicable district and/or school administrators and request volunteer participation on the researcher's behalf.  Please note the following:

  • Research in Richland One schools MAY NOT interfere with academic instruction or educational programs.  Research that interrupts instructional time will be denied immediately.
  • Not all Richland One schools are open for research. Certain schools will be closed when they have reached capacity of outside researchers or if the principal has chosen that they be exempt from proposals due to other academic focuses (for example, Turnaround Schools, Priority Schools, schools with major federal grants).
  • Research may be denied if significant amounts of work are required from the AARE office during high volume times (such as testing and release of assessment scores, etc.)
  • Richland One will not act as a funneling agency for research projects (for example, if you want to send flyers home through the school to conduct research outside of the district. 
  • Richland One will not allow researchers to recruit subjects in our schools for research conducted outside of the district.
  • Please note that approval is not guaranteed. We recommend you submit simultaneous requests and/or establish contingency plans in case your proposal is denied.

Application Approval Process: 

If approved, an official letter from the Research Committee Chairperson will be provided to the researcher with guidance on how to begin conducting research within the district. 

  • All Richland One principals, teachers, staff, parents and students have the right to refuse participation in any research approved by the Richland One Research Committee. 
  • If approved, your approval is only valid for that school year. If your project extends multiple years, you will need to reapply annually. You may submit the same proposal annually if you have a multi-year project. However, schools will be contacted annually to verify continued interest in participation.
  • All approved researchers must provide the district with a copy of their final report. Failure to do so will negatively influence any future research involvement with the district.