Communities in Schools (CIS)

Adolescents, especially those at-risk, and youth-serving organizations

Communities in Schools (CIS) is a youth–serving and dropout prevention organization. The mission of CIS is to link community resources and provide direct services to help young people succeed, stay in school, and prepare for life. CIS offers short-term services to every student and longer-term interventions that target students who need intensive ongoing assistance. The CIS Model is an approach that provides community-based, integrated student services with the following components:

• Active engagement of a school-based coordinator
• Comprehensive school- and student-level needs assessment
• Community asset assessment and identification of service partners
• Annual school and student-level plans for delivery of prevention and intervention services
• Delivery of appropriate prevention and intervention services
• Data collection and evaluation for reporting and modification of service strategies

• Agency/Affiliation: Communities In Schools National Office
• Website: http://www.communitiesinschools.org/
• Phone: (800) 247-4543 x7

Publicly available information indicates there is some training available for this program. See contact info.

Manual Information

There is not a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Type/Location:

Information on training can be obtained by emailing cis@cisnet.org

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

• Porowski, A., & Passa, A. (2011). The effect of Communities in Schools on high school dropout and graduation rates: Results from a multiyear, school-level quasi-experimental study. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 16(1), 24–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2011.545977

  Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)

  Participants: 246 schools

  Sample / Population:

  • Age — Not specified
  • Race/Ethnicity — Not specified
  • Gender — Not specified
  • Status —

    Participants were high schools that implemented the Communities in Schools program for at least 3 consecutive years.

  Location/Institution: Florida, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to examine the differences in high school dropout and graduation rates between Communities in Schools (CIS) and its comparison schools over a 4-year period, starting from the year prior to CIS implementation to 3 years after implementation. Participants were either CIS high schools or matched comparison high schools. Measures utilized include administrative data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Common Core of Data and State Department of Education Web sites and offices. Results indicate that CIS high schools made stronger gains in on-time graduation rates, and had greater reductions in dropout rates, than comparison schools over the same period. Results were considerably stronger for CIS schools that implemented the CIS model with a high degree of fidelity. Limitations include propensity score matching is limited in its reliance on observed variables, the possibility that some unobservable factors (e.g., motivation to implement CIS within a school district) may account for at least part of the positive outcomes found in this study, and the sample size was limited because not all State Department of Education data could be aligned across all time points.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

• Hammond, C., Linton, D., Smink, J., & Drew, S. (2007). Dropout risk factors and exemplary programs. National Dropout Prevention Center, Communities In Schools, Inc.