Project Align is a project designed to identify strategies for assisting districts in ensuring that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum aligned with Ohio's Academic Content Standards.  Partners in this project are: Western Buckeye Educational Service Center, Antwerp, Wayne Trace Local, Paulding Exempted Village, St. John's Parochial, and ParcLane MRDD.  See the Participants link for the list of participants.

   The overall theme of Project Align is the study of assessment as it relates to literacy, and alignment of curriculum to the Ohio's Academic Content Standards. The study of assessments includes comparing the Dibels, Star, and Early Star, training teachers and students to collect and analyze data and goal attainment. The alignment study will utilize the Curriculum Alignment Toolkit provided by the Ohio Department of Education. Action research teams at each building include 4-6 general, special educators, and parents.

   Project Align will promote shared responsibility for the success of all students at the building level by aligning curriculum and instruction for all students, developing effective interventions for use in the regular classroom, and using data-driven decisions to inform instruction in the regular classroom.  Through Project Align professional development will be delivered and focused on targeted improvement strategies to provide instructional support based on a team approach.

   The evaluation plan for Project Align is based upon the "Five Levels of Professional Development Evaluation" suggested by Thomas Guskey, University of Kansas. Each level of evaluation builds upon the previous level; leading to an assessment of student outcomes. The evaluator will be the project coordinator and an Ashland University professor of statistical analysis. Project Align will be an ongoing commitment with data collection, student folders, and effective interventions beyond the grant period to validate student and teacher outcome comparisons.