- Houston Independent School District
- Conducting Research in HISD
Assessment, Accountability, and Compliance
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Conducting Research in HISD
At HISD, we are committed to upholding our core values, which encompass the placement of effective teachers in every classroom, effective principals in every school, and the implementation of rigorous instructional standards. In pursuit of these ideals, it is imperative to engage in high-quality program evaluations and research to identify innovative approaches to educating our students.
HISD Assessment, Accountability, and Compliance (AAC) is dedicated to fostering continuous improvement within our education eco-systems to guide program and policy decisions. Our foremost concern, however, remains the protection of student and staff privacy, in strict accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), state and federal privacy laws, district policy, and industry best practices. To ensure comprehensive safeguarding of research subjects' privacy, safety, health, and overall well-being, district policy mandates that all research requests undergo thorough review and approval by an internal research review board (RRB).
Please closely review Guidelines for Conducting Research Handbook prior to submitting your application.
Proposal Submission Timeline
Applications for research proposals requiring primary data collection involving students, teachers, and administrators for the upcoming or current school year must be submitted on or before due dates outlined in table below.
External research requests will only be accepted by the following submission deadlines:
Window
Application Due Dates
Review Dates
Target for Data Collection
#1
February 15 to March 15
April 1 – April 30
Summer Semester or Later
#2
May 15 to June 15
July 1 – July 30
Fall Semester or Later
#3
July 15 to August 15
September 1 – September 30
Fall Semester or Later
#4
October 15 to November 15
December 1 – December 30
Spring Semester or Later
Requests submitted outside of these windows and incomplete requests will not be considered. Failure to respond to requests from the HISD IRB within 2 weeks will result in the closure of the research application. You may resubmit in the next window.
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Is there an easier way?
Yes! Before submitting an external data request or Proposal to the Research Committee, we strongly encourage researchers to explore using publicly available data.
- State Accountability Ratings (State)
- TEA Analytic Portal (State)
- Campus Profiles (HISD)
- Program Evaluation and District Reports (HISD)
- Board Policy Manual (HISD)
- See additional PDF of publicly available data (District, State, and Federal sources).
Researchers opting to use the publicly available data found in these resources do not need to submit a research application to the district, and do not need to complete a Data Privacy Agreement.
NOTICES
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1. Graduate Students: The district will not be considering graduate student research requests from non-employees. Due to the substantial volume of graduate research requests from employees and our dedication to supporting them, the district's resources are currently unable to accommodate non-employee graduate research.
2. Grant Applications: Please note, an approval from an outside entity as related to a grant application does NOT guarantee the right to conduct research in HISD. If you have secured funding for a grant for a specific project, you will still be expected to adhere to the HISD process outlined here to seek approval for your research, including data privacy agreement(s) and possible charges for data services.
