[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 887 Introduced in House (IH)]
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 887
To provide for Project GRAD programs, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
February 7, 2007
Mrs. McCarthy of New York (for herself and Ms. Pryce of Ohio)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Education and Labor
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for Project GRAD programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Graduation Really Achieves Dreams
Act'' or the ``GRAD Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The national secondary school graduation rate is only
70 percent. For the class of 2001, the national graduation rate
was only 51 percent for African-American students and 52
percent for Latino students.
(2) In our nation's high poverty urban districts, as few as
one-third of students graduate from secondary school. In these
places, completion rates among certain disadvantaged groups of
students are often lower still.
(3) In rural areas, where one-third of American students
attend school, only 58.8 percent of students attend
institutions of higher education, compared with 68.2 percent of
American students from urban and suburban areas.
(4) Each school day, approximately 7,000 secondary school
students drop out of school.
(5) The 6,000,000 secondary students who make up the lowest
25 percent in terms of achievement scores are 3.5 times more
likely to drop out than students in the next highest quarter of
academic achievement, and are 20 times more likely to drop out
than high achieving students.
(6) Approximately 25 percent of secondary school students
are reading at ``below basic'' levels. The problem is even more
severe for poor students of color. The average minority or low-
income ninth grader performs at only the fifth or sixth grade
level in reading.
(7) Achievement gaps persist across racial and
socioeconomic lines in rural schools--there are 2,500,000 poor
children in rural areas, and the child poverty rate in some
rural areas is 2 to 3 times the national average.
(8) Recruiting and retaining good teachers is an enormous
challenge in rural areas: the average salary in rural districts
is 13.4 percent lower than in nonrural areas; and teachers
often teach more than 1 subject, teach in poor working
conditions, live far from colleges, have little access to
training, and face geographic and social isolation.
(9) Low graduation rates and college attendance rates are
evidence that, in the earlier grades, schools are not meeting
the fundamental achievement needs of low-income, minority, and
rural students.
(10) Even those students who do graduate from secondary
schools and go on to college are struggling because they lack
the basic skills to succeed. Approximately 40 percent of all 4-
year college students take a remedial course and 63 percent of
all community college students are assigned to at least 1
remedial course.
(11) A small percentage of low-income students who manage
to enter college are able to complete a degree. Of students
from families in the bottom 20 percent in terms of income who
enter college, only 27 percent go on to complete a 2- or 4-year
college degree within 8 years.
(12) Graduation rates impact early drop-out rates in the
military. The attrition rates in the military of both
individuals who are not secondary school graduates and GED
recipients are 8 percentage points higher than the attrition
rate of secondary school graduates. As a result, the Armed
Services no longer accepts secondary school dropouts and puts
less value on alternative certificates.
(13) Students who fail to graduate from secondary school
are more likely to engage in criminal activity than students
who graduate. A 1-percent increase in secondary school
graduation rates would save approximately $1,400,000,000 in
costs associated with incarceration, or about $2,100 for each
male secondary school graduate.
(14) In today's workplace, nearly 8 in 10 adults with
baccalaureate degrees are employed, but for those who completed
secondary school only, the number falls to about 6 in 10. For
students who dropped out of secondary school, the number drops
further to 4 in 10.
(15) Employment projections indicate that jobs requiring
only a secondary school degree will grow by just 9 percent by
the year 2008, while those jobs requiring a bachelor's degree
will grow by 25 percent and those jobs requiring an associate's
degree will grow by 31 percent.
(16) Increasing minority students' enrollment in college to
the same proportion as white students would generate an
additional $231 billion in GDP and at least $80 million in tax
revenues.
(17) Personalization of the school environment has been
proven to increase success rates for low-performing secondary
school students. Nearly 50 percent of middle school youth and
40 percent of secondary school youth report feelings of
disengagement from school. Rates are even higher for teens and
minorities in urban schools. These feelings result in failure
to work hard, to seek assistance, or to take appropriate
courses.
(18) Effective research-based education programs that
improve secondary school graduation rates are comprehensive in
nature and include interventions that begin in kindergarten or
earlier and span all the grades through grade 12.
SEC. 3. PROJECT GRAD.
(a) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to provide support and assistance to programs
implementing integrated education reform services in order to
improve secondary school graduation and college attendance and
completion rates for disadvantaged students; and
(2) to promote the establishment of new programs to
implement such integrated education reform services.
(b) Grant Authorized.--The Secretary is authorized to award a grant
to Project GRAD USA (referred to in this Act as the ``grantee''), a
nonprofit educational organization that has as its primary purpose the
improvement of secondary school graduation and college attendance and
completion rates for disadvantaged students, to implement and sustain
the integrated education reform services described in subsection (d)(3)
at existing Project GRAD program sites and to promote the expansion of
such programs to new sites.
(c) Requirements of Grant Agreement.--The Secretary shall enter
into an agreement with the grantee that requires that the grantee
shall--
(1) enter into subcontracts with nonprofit educational
organizations that serve a substantial number or percentage of
low-income students (referred to in this Act as
``subcontractors''), under which the subcontractors agree to
implement the programs described in subsection (d) and provide
matching funds for such programs;
(2) directly carry out--
(A) activities to implement and sustain the
literacy, mathematics, classroom management, social
service, and college access programs further described
in subsection (d)(3);
(B) activities to build the organizational and
management capacity of the subcontractors to
effectively implement and sustain the programs;
(C) activities for the purpose of improving and
expanding the programs, including but not limited to
activities to further articulate a program for one or
more grade levels and across grade levels, to tailor a
program for a particular target audience, and provide
tighter integration across programs;
(D) activities for the purpose of implementing new
Project GRAD program sites;
(E) activities for the purpose of promoting greater
public awareness of integrated education reform
services to improve secondary school graduation and
college attendance rates for disadvantaged students;
and
(F) other activities directly related to improving
secondary school graduation and college attendance and
completion rates for disadvantaged students; and
(3) use grant funds available under this act to pay--
(A) the amount determined under subsection (f)(1);
and
(B) costs associated with carrying out the
activities and providing the services, as provided in
paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(d) Supported Programs.--
(1) Designation.--The subcontractor programs referred to in
subsection (c)(1) shall be known as ``Project GRAD programs''.
(2) Feeder patterns.--Each subcontractor shall implement a
Project GRAD program and shall, with the agreement of the
grantee--
(A) identify or establish not less than one
``feeder pattern'' of public schools, where ``feeder
pattern'' is defined as a high school and the
elementary schools and middle schools that channel
students into that high school; and
(B) provide the integrated educational reform
services described in paragraph (3) at the identified
feeder pattern or feeder patterns.
(3) Integrated education reform services.--The services
provided through a Project GRAD program may include--
(A) research-based programs in reading,
mathematics, and classroom management; and
(B) campus-based social services programs,
including a systematic approach to increase family and
community involvement in the schools served by the
Project GRAD program;
(C) a college access program that includes--
(i) providing college scholarships for
students who meet established criteria;
(ii) proven approaches for increasing
student and family college awareness; and
(iii) assistance for such students in
applying for higher education financial aid;
and
(D) such other services identified by the grantee
as necessary to increase secondary school graduation
and college attendance and completion rates.
(e) Use of Funds.--Of the funds made available under this Act, not
more than 8 percent of such funds, or $4,000,000, whichever is less,
shall be used by the grantee to pay for administration of the grant,
with the remainder of funds to be used for the purposes described in
subsections (c)(1) and (2).
(f) Grantee Contribution and Matching Requirement.--
(1) In general.--The grantee shall provide to each
subcontractor an average of $200 for each pupil served by the
subcontractor in the Project GRAD program, adjusted to take
into consideration--
(A) the resources available in the area where the
subcontractor will implement the Project GRAD program;
and
(B) the need for Project GRAD programs in such area
to improve student outcomes.
(2) Matching requirement.--Each subcontractor shall provide
funds for the Project GRAD program in an amount that is equal
to the amount received by the subcontractor from the grantee.
Such matching funds may be provided in cash or in kind, fairly
evaluated.
(3) Waiver authority.--The grantee may waive, in whole or
in part, the requirement of subsection (f)(2) for a
subcontractor, if the subcontractor--
(A) demonstrates that it would not otherwise be
able to participate in the program; and
(B) enters into an agreement with the grantee with
respect to the amount to which the waiver will apply.
(4) Decrease in grantee share.--Based on the funds or
resources available to a subcontractor, the grantee may elect
to provide the subcontractor with an amount that is less than
the amount determined under paragraph (1).
(g) Evaluation.--
(1) Evaluation by the secretary.--The Secretary shall
select an independent entity to evaluate, every 3 years, the
performance of students who participate in a Project GRAD
program under this Act. The evaluation shall--
(A) be conducted using the strongest possible
research design for determining the effectiveness of
the Project GRAD programs funded under this Act; and
(B) compare reading and mathematics achievement
and, where applicable, the secondary school graduation,
college attendance, and college completion rates of
students who participate in a Project GRAD program
funded under this Act with those indicators for
students of similar backgrounds who do not participate
in such programs.
(2) Evaluation by grantee and subcontractors.--
(A) In general.--The grantee shall require each
subcontractor to prepare an in-depth report of the
results and the use of funds of each Project GRAD
program funded under this Act that includes--
(i) data on the reading and mathematics
achievement of students involved in the Project
GRAD program;
(ii) statistics on secondary school
graduation, college attendance, and college
completion rates; and
(iii) such financial reporting as required
by the Secretary to review the effectiveness
and efficiency of the program.
(B) Form of report.--The report shall be in a form
and include such content as shall be determined by the
grantee, in consultation with the Secretary or the
entity selected by the Secretary to evaluate the
Project GRAD programs in accordance with paragraph (1).
(3) Availability of evaluations.--Copies of any evaluation
or report prepared under this subsection shall be made
available to--
(A) the Secretary;
(B) the chairperson and ranking member of the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of
the Senate; and
(C) the chairperson and ranking member of the
Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House
of Representatives.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Elementary school; secondary school.--The terms
``elementary school'' and ``secondary school'' have the
meanings given such terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
(2) Low-income student.--The term ``low-income student''
means a student who is determined by a local educational agency
to be from a low-income family using the measures described in
section 1113(a)(5) of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6313(a)(5)).
(3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of Education.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act
$27,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, and such sums as are necessary for
each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.
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