DESE Research Partnership and Confidential Data Access for External Researchers

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Planning and Research

Massachusetts DESE accepts external research proposals through a research portal and can share confidential student-level data under FERPA research exemptions in limited circumstances. This is data and partnership access, not cash.

Indicative award

Not a cash award (not a cash award)No money is offered. The value is access to state education data and to a partnership review process; the page explicitly contains no funding provision.

Timing

Several times a yearSeveral times a year · Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, DecNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.Proposals are accepted on a rolling basis; the review team convenes on the third Thursday of each month to evaluate submissions and responds to inquiries afterward.

Who can apply

Doctoral candidate, Postdoctoral, Early-career faculty, Mid-career & senior, Any faculty rank

Eligibility

Open to external researchers who submit a proposal through DESE's research portal after consulting the Researcher's Guide and the department's published research agenda. No funding is attached — the page makes no mention of financial support. Access to personally identifiable data is granted only in limited circumstances under FERPA research exemptions, so an approved study design and data-protection plan are the real gate.

SSWR clusters

Topics

administrative data access · research partnership · ferpa · school outcomes

Apply at

https://www.doe.mass.edu/research/researchers.html

This entry

Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. The funder link has not yet been machine-checked.

Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.

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DESE Research Partnership and Confidential Data Access for External Researchers

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