Guidelines for Access to Madison Metropolitan School District by Students, Staff, and Parents for Research Purposes

Below are the procedures that must be followed by out-of-district persons and employees of the Madison Metropolitan School District who wish to gain access to the schools for the purposes of conducting research, developing measurement materials, surveying populations or developing educational methods/programs.  Requests for access are accepted and acted upon monthly by the MMSD External Research Committee (ERC). The ERC is comprised of members from the Madison Metropolitan School District and the University of Wisconsin (Madison).

 Please see the schedule below for deadlines and meeting dates:

2007-2008 External Research Committee Meeting Schedule

1.  Complete the Request for Access form.

2.  Include a one to two page abstract that includes:

• The PROBLEM your project intends to address;
• The PROCEDURES you plan to employ;
• The EXPECTED OUTCOMES in terms of your hypotheses, objectives or questions, and;
• The POSSIBLE BENEFITS your completed project might have for the Madison school system.

1. A parent/guardian consent letter as required by the researcher's Human Subjects (IRB) Committee. If approved by the UW-Madison the consent form must be date-stamped approved. The parent consent letter is important and will be reviewed carefully for accurate information. It must (if applicable) contain the supervising researcher signature (and professor, if the researcher is a student) and give a current and valid phone number to answer any questions about the study. All expenses in obtaining parent permission are the obligation of the researcher, including postage-paid responses to the researcher. The proposal must address the issue of parent consent.
   1. Types of Consent:
      1. Signed parent consent (active) The researcher must have a signed parent permission slip for each student who is involved. This situation will occur when (a) using Special Education students, (b) in the opinion of the ERC, the researcher is asking questions that infringe on family privacy, (c) the researcher is videotaping or photographing subjects, or (d) the researcher so requests. These letters may be distributed by first class mail or, upon consent of the school, could be hand carried by students.
      2. Informed parent consent (passive) The researcher must adequately inform each parent of the research activities, but only obtain parent signatures for those students whose parents do not want them to participate. (Rarely used).
      3. No parent permission. The research activities are initiated/sponsored by the MMSD and/or the research activities are considered part of the normal instructional process.
2. Providing basic elements of informed consent Sample Informed Consent Letter
   1. Unless otherwise authorized by the ERC, researchers, at a minimum, shall provide the following information to each subject:
      1. A statement that the study involves research, an explanation of the purposes of the research and the expected duration of the subject's participation, a description of the procedures to be followed, and identification of any procedures that are experimental;
      2. A description of any reasonably foreseeable risks or discomforts to the subject;
      3. A description of any benefits to the subject or to others that may be reasonably be expected from the research;
      4. A statement describing the extent, if any, to which confidentiality of records identifying the subject will be maintained;
      5. A statement that participation is voluntary, refusal to participate will involve no penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled, and the subject may discontinue participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits to which the subject is otherwise entitled.
      6. The name, address, phone number and institutional affiliation of the principal investigator; and,
      7. A statement indicating IRB contact information.
   2. When research involves more than minimal risk, an explanation about whether there is compensation available and an explanation about whether any medical treatments are available if injury occurs and, if so, what they consist of, or where further information may be obtained must be included.

4. Collate items 1 through 3 and make Eight STAPLED copies of your proposal.

5. Submit your proposal to the External Research Committee at Madison Metropolitan School District, Research & Evaluation, Room 205, 545 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53703  by 12:00 Noon on the 1st Monday of the month for consideration at that month's meeting.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO REMEMBER  If your proposal does not include everything requested in items 1 through 4 above, it will be returned to you for correction.  If  your proposal arrives after the deadline, it will be reviewed at the next month's meeting.

You may contact Research & Evaluation at 663-4945 or other committee members (see below) before you submit your project proposal. Inherent in such preliminary contacts will be a judgment as to whether the project can be implemented immediately, is entirely inappropriate for the school system or needs the consideration of other staff members or committees. You should not contact any teachers, principals, or any other staff about starting your project prior to review by the ERC. However, if you have preferences about where or with whom you want to work, please state this in your proposal.

External Research Committee Members

Kurt Kiefer, Madison Metropolitan School District, Chief Information Officer,545 West Dayton Street, Madison - 53703 (663-4946)

Tim Potter, Madison Metropolitan School District, Research and Evaluation, 545 West Dayton Street, Madison - 53703 (663-4948)

Lisa Wachtel, Madison Metropolitan School District, Teaching & Learning, 545 West Dayton Street, Madison - 53703 (663-5216)

John Harper, Madison Metropolitan School District, Educational Services, 545 West Dayton Street, Madison - 53703 (663-5976)

Maribeth Gettinger, UW Madison, Educational Sciences Building, Room 335, 1025 West Johnson Street, Madison - 53706 (262-0445)

Beth Graue, UW Madison, 464A TEB 225 N. Mills, Madison - 53706 (262-7435)

Mitchell Nathan, UW Madison, Department of Educational Psychology, 1025 West Johnson Street, Madison - 53706 (262-0831)

The committee will inform you by letter of the action taken on your request for access. The criteria which the committee will use to accept or reject your proposal are listed below and are generally arranged in order of priority:

1. Does the proposal conform to standards of protecting human subjects?
2. Does the proposal make reasonable demands on MMSD in terms of minimal disruption to the instructional program? As an example, releasing IQ and achievement test scores would not be acceptable as part of a study unless the researcher clearly justified that they were crucial. The amount of instructional time required for the study is also considered.
3. Does the proposal address an issue or question of interest to MMSD?

Once you have received the approval letter from the committee, it will be your responsibility to contact the school(s) and make arrangements with appropriate personnel for the implementation of your research project. In order to assist you in making arrangements, a District liaison may be assigned to your project.

Last Updated: 2007-03-13 8:58AM
Author: Kurt Kiefer, kkiefer@madison.k12.wi.us
HTML Editor: Chris Burch, cburch@madison.k12.wi.us
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