Jeffco School District
October 8, 2009
Ray Kerzner
University of Colorado at Boulder
Leeds School of Business, Bldg # 4
UCB 419
Boulder, CO 80309-0419
Dear Mr. Kerzner:
This letter is to inform you that your request to conduct a research study, Service Learning Quantitative Analysis Survey, has been initially reviewed by the Jefferson County Public Schools External Review Committee, based on the documents you submitted: the application for conducting research in Jeffco Schools, a letter from yourself about the project, a letter from James Marlatt confirming that the study is part of a class requirement, and a consent letter for students.
According to the committee, the following conditions must be met before preliminary approval will be given:
· Revise the survey so that the questions asking for student first and last name, email address, and phone number are removed.
· Revise consent letter so that reference to students providing contact information for follow-up is removed.
· Provide an information notice for the school to send home to parents alerting them that their students will be asked to complete a survey for your study. This can be just a paragraph or two but should include 1) information about the study, 2) your contact information in case there are any questions, 3) a statement explaining that participation by their students is completely voluntary and participating or not will not impact their students' grades at school, 4) how long the survey will take to complete, and 5) assurance that no personally identifying information will be requested.
· Setting up a table at schools during lunch time or an athletic event is generally not permitted because there are so many groups wanting to do this. Since it is not possible to accommodate everyone, in the interest of fairness, the practice in schools is generally to not allow this at all. However, a suggestion would be, after the study is preliminarily approved by the district, for you to contact principals, explain your study, and ask if you could distribute the consent/survey to students in appropriate classes, e.g. physical education, etc. The principal as well as the classroom teachers would need to approve the study first.
· Suggest that you may want to revise your sampling process since you will be reaching students in certain classes and not in the lunch room or at an athletic event.
Please contact my office with a response to the conditions listed above. Also, be aware that, assuming preliminary approval is granted, final approval for all research projects is determined by the principals and teachers in the schools where the study will be conducted. The External Research Review Committee will send a letter notifying the principals once preliminary approval for your study has been granted. Please call me at (303) 982-5945 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Shelley Shea,
External Research Review Committee