The Metropolitan Public Schools recognize the importance of educational research and, therefore, will consider written requests to conduct research from responsible individuals or agencies. The following policies and procedures are set forth to guide persons interested in conducting research :

1.       3 COPIES OF Research proposals shall be presented in writing to: Director of Assessment and Evaluation Metropolitan Public Schools 2601 Bransford Avenue Nashville, Tennessee 37204

2.       Requests from students who wish to gather data for a single course are discouraged because of numerous requests by local researchers and graduate students for research leading to advanced degrees.

3.       Research proposals submitted by a graduate student must have  signature approval from student's graduate committee or appropriate university official or advisor before MNPS will consider the proposal.

4.       Individual employees of the Metropolitan Schools who wish to conduct research for graduate credit and/or publication also must  submit a written proposal.

5.       All initial contacts with school(s) and/or persons to be involved shall be made from the Department of Assessment and Evaluation. The school(s) or individuals(s) in question must be willing to participate in the project after the proposal has been cleared through the Department of Assessment and Evaluation. A concerted effort will be made to maintain a balance of research across schools to avoid an overload in any given school.

6.       The researcher must agree to share complete results of the research project with the Department of Assessment and Evaluation and with professional school personnel who cooperated in the research. Further, permission for duplication and distribution of the study (part or whole) by the school system must be granted.

7.       The review process usually takes about three weeks, but may take longer. Give yourself ample time to submit your proposal. Since so many school-related activities take place from April until the end of the school year, any research proposals involving students and/or teachers submitted after the first week of March will probably not be approved (according to the discretion of the review committee) and in that case should be resubmitted in the fall.