October 2016 Awards

Cynthia Buettner

Cynthia Buettner

Principal Investigator: Cynthia Buettner, Department of Human Sciences

Co-Investigators: Sarah Lang

Project Dates: 9/01/2016 – 8/31/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $454,546
Project Sponsor: National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Expansion and refinement of the Virtual Lab School, an innovative professional development and training system for childcare professionals

 The Virtual Laboratory School (VLS; www.virtuallabschool.org) was designed to be a dynamic professional development system that is responsive to emerging needs in military settings and reflect the rapidly increasing body of research that should inform the care and education of young children. The objective of this project is to continue the work of the VLS in providing innovative and cost-effective virtual professional development (PD) for child development program staff; offering a PD system grounded upon the effectiveness of reflective practice and tailored coaching to support staff members’ use of optimal practices. We will accomplish this objective by updating current VLS content in response to new research, as well as expert and user feedback, revising website and backend database code in response to user feedback and changes in industry standards, completing the remaining courses for the family child care provider track, and developing and piloting new content in response to needs identified by project stakeholders. Implementation of the VLS PD system will be supported by providing regional sessions for training staff as well as development of a master trainer course for a small cohort of trainers who will serve as VLS mentors for new training staff in the future. Technical systems and in-person activities will be used to collect and utilize user and stakeholder feedback throughout the project. More information.


David Julian

David Julian

Principal Investigator: David Julian, Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE)

Co-Investigator: Robert Mahlman & Melissa Ross, CETE

Project Dates: 9/23/2016 – 9/30/2016
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $25,000
Project Sponsor: Makah Tribe

Circles of Care planning and evaluation services for Makah Tribe

The Results Management Team at CETE will assist with evaluation instrument development, identifying implementation strategies, data analysis, and report writing for all evaluation products.


David Julian

David Julian

Principal Investigator: David Julian, Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE)

Co-Investigator: Robert Mahlman & Melissa Ross, CETE

Project Dates: 7/01/2016 – 6/30/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $75,996
Project Sponsor: Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services

Need, assessment, planning and evaluation services for OhioMHAS transition age youth project (part 2)

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is engaged in a partnership with CityMatCH, the University of Kansas and nine Ohio communities to improve birth outcomes and reduce long-standing disparities in infant mortality. The Ohio Equity Institute, which was formulated out of this partnership, is working to strengthen the scientific and evidence base for achieving equity in birth outcomes.  Community engagement is viewed as an integral component of this effort.  The Ohio State University’s (OSU) commitment to this partnership will be to provide resources, supports and training to build the capacity of local teams to conduct community engagement resulting in meaningful citizen involvement in all planning activities and policy decisions.  Specifically, the OSU team proposes to conduct readiness assessments; develop an evaluation plan and complete a first round of evaluation; provide a training and associated tools and technical assistance and draft monthly status reports and a formal project report summarizing project activities, team progress and achievements.


Peter Paul

Peter Paul

Principal Investigator: Peter Paul, Department of Educational Studies

Project Dates: 07/01/2016 – 06/30/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $142,958
Project Sponsor: University of Dayton

Program for preparation of orientation & mobility specialists: 2016-2017

This Proposal is a response to the Request for a Non-Competitive Application (RFNCA-2016-2017) to continue to address the ongoing state-level need for certified orientation and mobility specialists (COMS). The Ohio State University’s Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Personnel Preparation Program has prepared six cohorts of individuals since 2010. A total of 37 students have graduated (completed OSU requirements) and 31 have passed the ACVREP national licensure test and have obtained ODE licensures. Nine additional students of the 2015-2016 cohort will graduate by the end of Summer 2016 semester. We have accepted 10 new students and have supported these students for the Summer 2016 semester. However, to develop a budget that is close to last year’s requested amount, we can only support 7 of the 10 students for Fall 2016 semester, Spring 2017 semester, and for Summer 1 (May 2017)—which is within the project period. For a cohort of 7 students, we are requesting $142,958 for the 2016-2017 project period (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017).