CISN enters Year 3 of its FSCS grant armed with data to understand what’s working and why
Across Nevada’s diverse landscapes—from Las Vegas to the high deserts of Elko and Humboldt Counties—schools face vastly different challenges yet share a common goal: ensuring every student has what they need to succeed. Communities In Schools of Nevada (CISN) recognizes that meeting this goal requires more than academic support; it demands a comprehensive approach that addresses the whole child and engages entire communities. In partnership with Metis Associates to support both grant writing and evaluation, CISN is now using its federal Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) grant to champion a multi-district initiative that demonstrates how the community school model can work across Nevada’s unique urban and rural contexts.
The Metis-CISN Partnership: Supporting Data-Driven Implementation from the Start
The partnership between CISN and Metis Associates began with a shared vision: to leverage federal funding to transform six Title I schools across three Nevada school districts into thriving Full-Service Community Schools. Since its founding in 2004, CISN has been Nevada’s leading organization using an evidence-based Integrated Student Supports (ISS) model, growing from serving one school in Clark County to 108 schools statewide by 2023.
Metis brought deep expertise in writing FSCS grants and evaluating community school implementation and multi-site initiatives. This collaboration produced a competitive application that secured federal funding for a five-year, multimillion-dollar initiative. The application demonstrated how CISN would coordinate services and partnerships across six schools—Rancho High School and J.D. Smith Middle School in urban Clark County, Flag View Intermediate and Northside Elementary in rural Elko County, and French Ford Middle School and Grass Valley Elementary in rural Humboldt County—while maintaining fidelity to the community school model across vastly different contexts. The grant award in January 2024 represented a significant achievement: Nevada became one of 11 grantees nationwide to receive a multi-LEA (local education agency) grant, and one of an even more select group spanning both rural and urban districts.
With FSCS funding secured, Metis’s role evolved to support CISN in evaluating this innovative initiative. During Year 1, Metis worked closely with CISN to establish baseline data across all six schools, revealing both the scale of need and early impact. For example, chronic absenteeism rates varied significantly—from 24% in Humboldt County to 40% in Clark County—highlighting the importance of context-specific strategies. Through the evaluation the data showed that CISN engaged 6,214 unduplicated students across urban and rural schools, with CISN and FSCS coordinators serving more than 100,000 unique students, including more than 5,000 instances of targeted Tier 2 and intensive Tier 3 interventions.
To facilitate cross-district conversations, the Metis team presented findings at virtual meetings where site coordinators and school administrators from all three counties shared strategies and learned from each other’s experiences addressing attendance, behavior, and family engagement in their unique contexts.
Metis also launched English and Spanish surveys for students, parents, staff, and partners across the three districts. The results captured important baseline data on topics including school climate and safety, absenteeism, out-of-school time programming, college and career readiness, family engagement, and community partnerships. These efforts helped CISN develop an evaluation capacity that supports continuous improvement, rather than simply collecting data for federal reporting.
Understanding Local Contexts
To better understand specific assets and challenges in each district and school, a Metis researcher visited two Clark County schools in the fall of 2025 and spoke with CISN and FSCS coordinators, community partners, principals, and students. Away from the bright lights of the strip—in a neighborhood shared with food distribution centers and a child and teen emergency shelter—stakeholders at JD Smith Middle School and Rancho High School shared their experiences and the value added by FSCS funding.
Both schools serve predominantly Latinx populations with high rates of poverty and English language learners. Metis found that CISN coordinators emphasized the importance of building trust with families, especially immigrant families that may have different understandings of expectations surrounding school attendance and parental engagement. Metis’s interviews and focus groups also revealed that FSCS funding has been essential to these efforts, allowing the CISN site coordinator to focus on case management while the FSCS coordinator works outside the school environment to support families’ basic needs and build trust through direct outreach and coordination with community partners.
“What we’re here to do is try to help make it easier for the student to focus on school rather than the responsibilities Of taking care Of their family. because they’re still a kid and they still have to put themselves first. That way they can pursue their goals past high school.”
Rancho Coordinator
As Metis documents in its local reporting, the community school teams developed culturally responsive strategies, including individual WhatsApp messaging, Spanish-language workshops, and home visits that bring services directly to families. Stakeholders were enthusiastic about mariachi programs at both schools, which have generated great pride among students and families. As one coordinator noted, “We can do a lot with the kids here at school, but if we can also support the families, that’s such a big difference.”
In rural Elko and Humboldt Counties, where schools face different challenges—including limited mental health services, extreme travel distances, and economic dependence on mining—CISN adapted the community school model accordingly. Metis plans to visit the four rural CISN schools in March 2026, bringing another layer of understanding and analysis to its evaluation.
Looking Ahead: Sustaining Impact Through Evidence-Based Decision Making
As CISN enters its third year of FSCS implementation, Metis continues to support data-informed decision-making that will shape the initiative’s trajectory. Metis and CISN also have plans to expand the evaluation to include participatory methods, including a new student evaluation advisory group that will introduce a group of students to data and evaluation before engaging them in the analysis of actual initiative data. This approach not only gives students the unique opportunity to learn about program evaluation but also provides a venue for their voices to be heard, ensuring that data interpretation and program adjustments reflect the lived experiences and priorities of those most impacted by the initiative.
By helping CISN secure federal FSCS funding and document effective practices across the diversity of Nevada, Metis has contributed to an initiative that serves as a national model for multi-district community school implementation. Metis’s evaluation approach is responsive to all federal requirements and the key pillars of the community school model, while still appreciating the significance of locale and the nuanced, context-specific data that informs whole-student interventions and continuous improvement. As CISN enters Year 3 of its FSCS grant armed with data to understand what’s working and why—both across the initiative and within the specific urban and rural contexts—the foundation is set for lasting impact.
CIS Nevada’s Year 3 progress reflects the full arc of Metis’s support, from securing the grant to evaluating its impact across the state’s diverse communities. Explore our Full-Service Community Schools focus area, grant writing services, and program evaluation services to see how we support this work end to end.