Waterloo Region District School Board

Research Proposals

It is the policy of the Waterloo Region District School Board to permit authorized research personnel, in adherence to ethical guidelines as set out by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, to use its facilities and involve students and/or Waterloo Region District School Board staff in research projects with the prior approval of the Director of Education, or designate, recognizing that:

• The Board appreciates that the increasing interest in social science studies in the universities brings with it the need for research into education and the learning process
• Students and employees can benefit in many ways as a result of some of the studies in which they participate
• The number of requests to conduct research in schools is of sufficient quantity to require some kind of control in order to permit schools to achieve their main goal of optimizing learning and achievement for all students by keeping disruptions to a minimum
• The Board’s Research Committee consists of one trustee, one representative from the Waterloo Region Assembly of Public School Councils, school administrators, and Learning Services staff
• School councils will be informed of new research initiatives in a timely fashion.

The standard for university and non-university ethics review is the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS) which was jointly developed by the former Medical Research Council of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Revised in 2010, it is now referred to as TCPS2.

The complete document can be accessed on the Government of Canada website at: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca

Please be advised that there is an application process for all external requests for educational research and that these applications are rigorously reviewed to ensure that they comply with WRDSB criteria.

Potential applicants should read the Information for Researchers and WRDSB Policy 4007-Approval of Research Projects carefully.

The application form is in PDF format. It may be downloaded and used to create your application. To make the review task easier for the Committee members, all items must be submitted on paper.

The following documentation is required:

Information for Researchers
Application Form
Policy 4007 – Approval of Research Projects
Research Submission Deadline Dates