Metis Helps Michigan Consortium Establish Model Inter-district Choice Program

With program development assistance from Metis Associates, an educational consortium led by Utica Community Schools (UCS), in Macomb County, Michigan, has just been awarded a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Voluntary Public School Choice Program.  The grant is one of only 14 awarded nationwide.  The Voluntary Public School Choice Program supports efforts to establish or expand public school choice programs to provide parents—particularly parents whose children attend low-performing public schools—with expanded education options.  

This five-year grant to UCS and its partners, Mount Clemens Community Schools and Armada Area Public Schools, will create a model inter-district choice program, Project E=MC2 (Excellence = Macomb County Choice), to expand the range of innovative and rigorous educational programs available for students in the county.  Seven new program options at the middle and high school levels will ultimately provide additional seats “of choice” for students in grades 6 to 12 and will strengthen the three districts’ capacity to meet increased demand for choice and provide equitable student access to such programs.  Metis has been engaged to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the initiative, which will be designed to inform programmatic and policy decisions about “what’s working” in this project and yield rigorous evidence about its impact on participating students’ educational outcomes.