Barbara Boone
Principal Investigator: Barbara Boone, Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE)
Co-Investigators: Robert Mahlman
Project Dates: 07/01/2016 – 06/30/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $130,000
Project Sponsor: Ohio Department of Education
SPDG project and parent-educator collaboration project
The purpose of Ohio’s State Professional Development Grant (SPDG) awarded to Ohio Department of Education (ODE) is to reform and improve the state’s system of personnel development to better support all Ohio districts and their schools in significantly improving the quality and consistency of instruction and services provided to students receiving special education services and other struggling learners at risk of being identified as disabled, as part of district-wide continuous improvement.
The Parent-Educator Partnerships component of Ohio’s SPDG aims to successfully engage families in their children’s education at school and at home to support the successful inclusion of students with disabilities. The Parent-Teacher Partner Model of Murray and Mereoiu is being implemented at the LEA level to develop relational practices and participatory practices to improve adult attitudes and dispositions, ultimately supporting improved student outcomes.
This project includes continuing project management and resource development services that began in October 2013 for the Parent-Teacher Partnerships model project of SPDG, for the 12 month period of July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017. In addition, for the same 12 month period, the Center for Education and Training for Employment at The Ohio State University will continue project management and coordination services (started in February 2015).
Principal Investigator: Jaclyn Dynia, Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy
Co-Investigators: Mihaiela Gugiu
Project Dates: 07/01/2016 – 06/30/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $436,037
Project Sponsor: Summit County Educational Service Center
Sit together and read-Ohio: STAR-Ohio salaries and wages
This award supports salaries of staff for STAR-Ohio.
Laurice Joseph
Principal Investigator: Laurice Joseph, Educational Studies
Co-Investigators: Sheila Morgan
Project Dates: 10/11/2016 – 08/31/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $96,554
Project Sponsor: McGraw-Hill
Open court reading program evaluation
The purpose of this evaluation project is to evaluate the implementation of the Open Court Reading Program (experimental condition) and business as usual (control condition) in several classrooms in schools across multiple sites (i.e., Prescott, Arkansas; Marysville, MI; Whitehall, OH; Riverside Schools, OH; possibly Southwest ISD in Texas).The outcome measures will consist of measures of fundamental general outcome reading skills during one academic school year. These reading measures will be those that are aligned with common core reading standards.
Helen Malone
Principal Investigator: Helen Malone, Educational Studies
Project Dates: 08/01/2016 – 07/31/2017
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $64,463
Project Sponsor: Franklin Co Board Of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities
Buckeye behavior analysis services
The following proposed project represents a partnership between OSU and FCBDD that will capitalize on current resources and target vocational and community skills training for students served by the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Two (2) Graduate Associate (GA) positions are being requested.
In the state of Ohio (and nationwide) there is a push to increase meaningful employment for individuals with developmental disabilities. Under the Employment First Initiative, there is a continued push to close sheltered workshops, which have been a common next step for students with significant disabilities. One task set forth in this order is to “identify best practices” for employment. Not unlike IDEA, which requires students to be educated with evidence-based practices, the identification of best practices will require the collection of evidence to support those practices. Given this focus on transition-age youth and the expectation of preparing them for community employment, it is essential that work be done to identify evidence-based practices that will allow youth served through FCBDD to be successful in community employment. As such, OSU is proposing that two GA positions be funded that will continue to focus on exploring different practices and preparing subsequent staff trainings that will highlight how to implement practices that are effective in leading to vocational and community skill acquisition, generalization, and maintenance.
Two GAs will be assigned to West Central School and will work directly with the students and instructional staff. These GAs will be available to provide support in a variety of ways. First, they can assist teachers in working to build the prerequisite skills necessary for successful employment, such as communication. Second, the GAs can explore methods for decreasing challenging behaviors in an effort to increase the time students spend engaged in appropriate tasks, which will be essential if a student is to maintain employment in the community. In addition to the specific methods explored, data will be collected systematically so that effects of the various interventions can be attributed to the specific methods used. We will work directly with vocational training staff and teachers of students who are of transition age to identify the skills they believe are necessary for acquisition or reduction. We can then apply various methods to those skills to identify the procedures that are the most effective.
Once a series of data support the use of a particular procedure, we will develop brief training modules to share with the vocational staff and transition teachers so that they can maintain and appropriately fade out the interventions. They can also carry out the procedures in community settings with their students so that data on generalization and maintenance can be collected. They will be able to provide the GAs feedback on what they are able to maintain and what is too cumbersome. In this way, we can create an ongoing communication loop to address challenges as they arise, with the focus always remaining on providing the student access to appropriate community employment experiences. This work will be completed in collaboration with Deb Viney, who is the curriculum coordinator for the school.
In addition to the aforementioned projects, we will be available to all teachers and support staff to provide support in appropriately modifying and adapting the curriculum to fit the individualized needs of students as well as assist in embedding vocational and daily living skills instruction into academic targets.
Every 15 weeks (or at the end of each semester), outcomes will be evaluated on the following criteria: (a) number of students/clients/classrooms served, (b) educational and behavioral progress made with each student served, (c) number of training seminars or workshops conducted, and (d) consumer satisfaction with the services provided. Additionally, progress reports will be sent to all parents (and included in the students’ files) at the end of the school year detailing the progress their child made and the steps we recommend be taken in the future to ensure continued success.