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Metis Associates is proud to support Communities In Schools of Nevada (CISN) in implementing their federal Full-Service Community Schools grant.
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. CISN is dedicated to ensuring every student has what they need to succeed and champions a comprehensive approach that addresses the whole child while engaging entire communities.
So what does it take to evaluate a community schools initiative spanning desert cities, remote mining towns, and everything in between?
- Grant Writing: Metis helped craft the competitive application that secured a multimillion-dollar, five-year federal award — making Nevada one of only 11 states to receive a multi-LEA grant and one of a select few spanning both urban and rural districts
- Baseline Evaluation: Metis established baseline data across all six schools, launching English and Spanish surveys for students, parents, staff, and partners — capturing everything from school climate to chronic absenteeism to family engagement
- On-the-Ground Research: Metis researchers conducted in-person site visits and qualitative interviews, uncovering the nuanced, context-specific strategies that quantitative data alone can’t tell you
- Cross-Site Learning: Metis presents findings at cross-district convenings, helping coordinators and administrators across three counties learn from each other’s experiences
- Building Evaluation Capacity: Rather than simply collecting data for federal compliance, Metis is helping CISN develop internal systems that drive continuous improvement — and expanding to participatory methods that put students at the center of the process
Metis is proud to be a true partner in this work.
Read more about this work in our case study: Transforming Nevada’s Schools: Bridging Rural and Urban Communities Through Strategic Evaluation.