Increasing the capacity for early childhood practitioners to use research to guide instruction and policy is a central component of PEER’s mission. Our partners have shared that while district-, school- and program-level practitioners frequently possess data that can be used for research, they often do not have the resources or time to do so. Researcher-practitioner partnerships address this reality by bringing additional resources and expertise to the table and creating an infrastructure for collaboration.
One important component of collaborative research involves the sharing of data with external researcher partners. By sharing data with such partners, districts, schools, and programs gain access to outside expertise and investment in organizing, analyzing, and interpreting data. In this way, data sharing can be a very efficient and low-cost way for school districts and educational organizations to make the most of their data for informing decision-making. Collaborative research is especially advantageous for districts and educational organizations with lean budgets that require them to allocate most of their funds to other aspects of educational programming.
Depending on the research question, sharing data with researchers may involve student data at the aggregate level or the individual level. When data is shared at the aggregate level, no information is shared about individual students. When data is shared at the individual level and includes information that can identify students, questions often arise about student privacy that can make the process seem quite scary. Who will receive this information? How long will they have it? What will be done with it? How securely will the information be kept? Will the researchers share it with other people or organizations?
These questions reflect very reasonable concerns about student privacy. However, it is important to note that the protection of individuals’ data is a critical component of high quality research. This idea is central to the Student Data Principles that PEER endorses, which consists of ten principles developed by a coalition of national education organizations to describe the appropriate use and protection of student data. The use of such a framework can be a very useful tool for researchers and practitioners to think about why, when, and how data should be shared with others.
Data principles can be especially helpful in guiding two of the most important steps in conducting collaborative research: identifying shared research priorities and developing data-sharing agreements. Data-sharing agreements between researchers and school districts or other educational organizations address student privacy concerns and ensure compliance with federal and state student privacy laws, as well as specific district policies. Several resources that can be helpful to researchers and practitioners in understanding and developing data-sharing agreements are included at the left.
As PEER continues to refine its collaborative research agenda and we begin to pursue research questions, the sharing of data will be a very important aspect of this work. We look forward to collaborating with our partners to use data in research that supports districts, schools and programs while safeguarding students’ privacy.