An EMCF SIF investment will help CIS replicate its model in 41 of the highest-need high schools, 16 middle schools, and nine elementary schools in North Carolina, South Carolina and California. This investment will also strengthen key internal capacities, filling strategic positions in field operations and enhancing CIS’s all-important fidelity management system. Improving this system will make it more likely that a rigorous evaluation can advance CIS to demonstrated effectiveness. Once the organization’s evaluation plans have been finalized, EMCF will determine whether a portion of the evaluation work will be covered under this grant.

An EMCF SIF investment in CIS will accomplish three goals: 1) expand CIS’s Level II services for students at greatest risk of dropping out and help them stay in school and graduate on time; 2) improve the quality of all services throughout the entire CIS network; and 3) deliver a cost-effective solution to the national dropout crisis to greater numbers of schools and students across the country, demonstrating how a promising program can be expanded to even greater scale.

States this SIF investment will support growth in: California, North Carolina and South Carolina

Number of youth this investment will serve: CIS is developing plans to reach 149,000 students in California, North Carolina and South Carolina between 2012 and 2014, an increase of up to 38 percent. 14,000 young people at greatest risk of dropping out will receive intensive Level II services, an increase of up to 46 percent.

A scenario-based growth plan confirming or revising these projections will be available in June 2011.