One of the Board’s primary concerns is to evaluate risks or the potential that harm will come to participants as the result of their participation. In an education study, often the most likely risks are tied to how identifiable the participant's data will be, how sensitive the procedures and the resulting data will be, and what the participant will sacrifice as a result of their participation. Demonstrating awareness of these issues and crafting a thoughtful plan in your protocol will help the Board to be confident in allowing the study to go forward.
Social Risks for Students
Is there a possibility that your activity could cause a specific student or a group of students to feel ostracized from the class activities? Is it possible that your study could reveal information to the class that might be embarrassing or harmful to a particular student? Will the student feel pressured into participating in the activity even if they do not want to? If a student does not participate in a study (either because they choose not to or their parents don’t allow them to participate), will that student feel left out of the group? Social acceptance can be a big issue, particularly for students. Please be sensitive to any issues that may disrupt the social structure in a classroom. In addition, if a student is in a classroom, he or she is generally obligated to participate in the classroom activity. If your study is the classroom activity, you should develop alternatives for the student, such as provide another class to attend or an alternative activity.
Waste of Student's Educational Time
The Board and the school district will want assurances from the researcher that the proposed activity will not interfere with or lessen the basic education that would have been provided if the student was not involved in the study. If the student is involved in an activity that will not meet this requirement, please consider conducting the study at another time outside the classroom setting. Also, in order for a study to be considered normal educational practice, each student should be able to participate in the classroom activity regardless of whether they participate in the data collection part of the study. No student should be removed from a classroom if that student is not participating in the study unless the student is given opportunity to participate in another class where the same educational benefit would be received.
The Board recognizes that a school district will most likely act to benefit their students and is unlikely to approve of a study that wastes student time. The Board will consider the recommendations of the school district in determining whether a study qualifies as normal educational practice.
Activities That Could Affect Students' Grades
The Board requires that studies not influence a student’s grade unless otherwise justified. In such cases, you may be asked that pretests, posttests, classroom exercises, homework assignments, etc., not be used to determine the student’s final grade. If the study will affect the student’s grade, you may be required to provide a plan for allowing students to withdraw from a study without affecting their grades. If required, this plan will need to be explained in the protocol, in the student consent/assent, and in the parent consent and/or parent notification letter, if either is required.
This issue also arises for adult students in a college or university setting where a professor is using students as participants in his or her research. For more information, please see the Student Participants section.
Burdening New Teachers and Student Teachers
Please be sensitive to the amount of time that you are requesting a teacher to dedicate to your study. Teachers, particularly new teachers and student teachers, can be quickly overwhelmed with the normal demands placed on them, and adding to those demands may cause undue stress and anxiety. Also, videotaping and observing these teachers could heighten their nervousness in dealing with the class.
Lack of Voluntary Participation
School systems tend to have strong hierarchical relationships. Be careful to create a recruitment process that encourages voluntary participation. For example, while a principal can distribute information about a study and announce that he or she has approved the study to be conducted in the school (i.e. by sending a letter to parents indicating that the school approves the project), the principal should not be involved in directly recruiting and consenting teachers. Likewise, a teacher can provide information about the study to his or her students, but the students and/ or parents may feel more comfortable contacting the researcher if they have questions or concerns about their child’s participation in the study. There may be instances in which the principal or administrator requires that a new instructional method be implemented in the school; although the teacher may be required to implement the new method, the teacher and students should be allowed to consent to the data collection aspect of the study in a non-coercive way. Make sure that the participants in the study are also able to freely withdraw from the study.
When the Instructor is the Researcher
As the instructor of the class, whether your students are minors or adults, you have a position of authority over your students and also over their parents (if parents are a part of the study). As you will collect confidential materials about your students, the Board may ask that this information be collected by a third party, such as another researcher who does not have the same influence over the students, or a research assistant. The optimal way to conduct this type of study would be that the students’ teacher would receive a data set that is stripped of identifiers and the teacher will not be able to or will not attempt to deduce the identities of the participants. The Board understands that this may not always be possible; however, the Board will want to you to provide a thorough justification of your data collection methods and explain how the participants will be protected. In some cases, the Board may not be able to approve studies where the conflict of interest proves to be too great of a risk to the students. However, the Board will work with you to devise a methodology that is acceptable to both parties.
This issue also arises for adult students in a college or university setting where a professor is using students as participants in his or her research. For more information, please see the Student Participants section.