[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 514 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 514

                To improve the National Writing Project.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 3, 1999

  Mr. Cochran introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                To improve the National Writing Project.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT.

    (a) Findings and Purposes.--Section 10991 of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8331) is amended to read as 
follows:

``SEC. 10991. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    ``(a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            ``(1) the United States faces a continuing crisis in 
        writing in schools and in the workplace;
            ``(2) the writing problem has been magnified by the rapidly 
        changing student population, the growing number of at-risk 
        students due to limited English proficiency, the shortage of 
        adequately trained teachers, and the specialized knowledge 
        required of teachers to teach students with special needs who 
        are now part of mainstream classrooms;
            ``(3) nationwide reports from universities and colleges 
        show that entering students are unable to meet the demands of 
        college level writing, almost all 2-year institutions of higher 
        education offer remedial writing courses, and three-quarters of 
        public 4-year institutions of higher education and half of all 
        private 4-year institutions of higher education must provide 
        remedial courses in writing;
            ``(4) American businesses and corporations are concerned 
        about the limited writing skills of both entry-level workers 
        and executives whose promotions are denied due to inadequate 
        writing abilities;
            ``(5) writing is fundamental to learning, including 
        learning to read, yet writing has been neglected historically 
        in schools and in teacher training institutions;
            ``(6) writing is a central feature in State and school 
        district education standards in all disciplines;
            ``(7) since 1973, the only national program to address the 
        writing problem in the Nation's schools has been the National 
        Writing Project, a network of collaborative university-school 
        programs the goals of which are to improve student achievement 
        in writing and student learning through improving the teaching 
        and uses of writing at all grade levels and in all disciplines;
            ``(8) the National Writing Project is a nationally 
        recognized and honored nonprofit organization that improves the 
        quality of teaching and teachers through developing teacher 
        leaders who teach other teachers in summer and school year 
        programs;
            ``(9) evaluations of the National Writing Project document 
        the positive impact the project has had on improving the 
        teaching of writing, student performance in writing, and 
        student learning;
            ``(10) the National Writing Project has become a model for 
        programs to improve teaching in such other fields as 
        mathematics, science, history, reading and literature, 
        performing arts and foreign languages;
            ``(11) each year over 150,000 participants benefit from 
        National Writing Project programs in 1 of 156 United States 
        sites located in 46 States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; 
        and
            ``(12) the National Writing Project is a cost-effective 
        program and leverages over 6 dollars for every 1 Federal 
        dollar.
    ``(b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this part--
            ``(1) to support and promote the expansion of the National 
        Writing Project network of sites so that teachers in every 
        region of the United States will have access to a National 
        Writing Project program;
            ``(2) to ensure the consistent high quality of the sites 
        through ongoing review, evaluation and technical assistance;
            ``(3) to support and promote the establishment of programs 
        to disseminate effective practices and research findings about 
        the teaching of writing; and
            ``(4) to coordinate activities assisted under this part 
        with activities assisted under this Act.''.
    (b) Authorization.--Subsection (a) of section 10992 of such Act (20 
U.S.C. 8332(a)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(a) Authorization.--The Secretary is authorized to make a grant 
to the National Writing Project (hereafter in this section referred to 
as the `grantee'), a nonprofit educational organization that has as its 
primary purpose the improvement of the quality of student writing and 
learning, to improve the teaching and uses of writing to learn in our 
Nation's classrooms.''.
    (c) Federal Share.--Paragraph (3) of section 10992(d) of such Act 
(20 U.S.C. 8332(d)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(3) Maximum.--The Federal share of the costs of teacher 
        training programs conducted pursuant to subsection (a) may not 
        exceed $100,000 for any one contractor, or $200,000 for a 
        statewide program administered by any one contractor in at 
        least five sites throughout the State.
    (d) Repeal of Classroom Teacher Grants.--Section 10992 of such Act 
(20 U.S.C. 8332) is amended--
            (1) by repealing subsection (e);
            (2) by redesignating subsections (f), (g), (h), and (i) as 
        subsections (e), (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and
            (3) in subsection (d)(2), by striking ``(f)'' and inserting 
        ``(e)''; and
            (4) in subsection (f)(2) (as redesignated by paragraph 
        (2)), by striking ``(i)'' and inserting ``(h)''.
    (e) Authorization of Appropriations.--Subsection (h) of section 
10992 of such Act (as redesignated by subsection (d)(2)) (20 U.S.C. 
8332) is amended by striking ``$4,000,000 for fiscal year 1995'' and 
inserting ``$15,000,000 for fiscal year 2000''.
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