Michigan

In 2022, the Michigan Department of Education launched the Great Start Readiness Program, providing over $337 million to fund local preschool programs for four-year-old children experiencing factors placing them at risk of educational failure. Applicants were required to use the Great Start Readiness preschool education model, an evidence-based practice rated as highly effective in the Results First Clearinghouse.

In 2022, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity used a tiered evidence framework from the AmeriCorps Evidence Exchange to define and prioritize evidence of effectiveness and to allocate funds through its AmeriCorps grant program. Criteria from the Evidence Exchange assigned preference to evidence-based interventions assessed as ‘Moderate’ or ‘Strong’. To do this, the grant attributed points within Program Design (worth 50% of total points) towards evidence-based criteria, including Evidence Tier (worth 12%) and Evidence Quality (worth 8%). Evidence Base was subsequently awarded up to 20 points and Evidence Tier was allotted 12 points. The Request for Proposals indicted that “many of these interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in improving outcomes for individuals living in underserved communities and that the agency has committed resources to supporting grantees seeking to replicate and evaluate these interventions in similar communities”. Evidence of effectiveness was prioritized by stating that “all applicants must propose program designs that are either evidence-based or evidence-informed. Applicants assessed as lower than the Preliminary evidence tier (i.e., Pre-Preliminary) must provide adequate responses to the Evidence Quality review criteria in order to be considered for funding.” Applicants were encouraged to consider interventions through the AmeriCorps Mandatory Supplemental Guidance that further defined evidence.

In 2021, Michigan’s Department of Corrections (DoC) created the Evidence-Based Services for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System Grant Program. True to its title, the Michigan DoC required that applicants use the following evidence-based models: Multisystemic Therapy (MST), Multisystemic Therapy for Problem Sexual Behaviors (MST-PSB), or Functional Family Therapy (FFT). These interventions are all rated as highly effective in the Results First Clearinghouse.