109 HR 5833 IH: Teacher Centers Act of
U.S. House of Representatives
2006-07-19
text/xml
EN
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
1.This Act may be cited as the
Teacher Centers Act of
2006
.
2.The Congress finds as follows:
(1)There are not
enough qualified teachers in the Nation’s classrooms, and an unprecedented
number of teachers will retire over the next 5 years. Over the next decade, the
Nation will need to bring 2,000,000 new teachers into public schools.
(2)Too many teachers
do not receive adequate preparation for their jobs.
(3)Teacher turnover
is a serious problem, particularly in urban and rural areas. Over one-third of
new teachers leave the profession within their first 3 years of teaching, and
14 percent of new teachers leave the field within the first year. After 5
years—the average time it takes for teachers to maximize students’
learning—half of all new teachers will have exited the profession. Rates of
teacher attrition are highest in high-poverty schools. Between 2000 and 2001, 1
out of 5 teachers in the Nation’s high-poverty schools either left to teach in
another school or dropped out of teaching altogether.
(4)Research shows
that individual teachers have a great impact on how well their students learn.
The most effective teachers have been shown to be able to boost their pupils’
learning by a full grade level relative to students taught by less effective
teachers.
(5)Only 16 States
finance new teacher induction programs, and fewer still require inductees to be
matched with mentors who teach the same subject.
3.Improving retention of
public elementary and secondary school teachers
(a)Title II of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
E
2501.
(a)The Secretary may make grants to eligible
entities for the establishment and operation of new teacher centers or the
support of existing teacher centers.
(b)In making grants under this section, the Secretary
shall give special consideration to any application submitted by an eligible
entity that is—
(1)a high-need local
educational agency; or
(2)a consortium that
includes at least one high-need local educational agency.
(c)Each
grant under this section shall be for a period of 3 years.
(d)A teacher center receiving assistance under this
section shall carry out each of the following activities:
(1)Providing
high-quality professional development to teachers to assist them in improving
their knowledge, skills, and teaching practices in order to help students to
improve their achievement and meet State academic standards.
(2)Providing teachers
with information on developments in curricula, assessments, and educational
research, including the manner in which the research and data can be used to
improve teaching skills and practice.
(3)Providing training
and support for new teachers.
(e)A teacher center may use assistance under this section
for any of the following:
(1)Assessing the
professional development needs of the teachers and other instructional school
employees, such as librarians, counselors, and paraprofessionals, to be served
by the center.
(2)Providing
intensive support to staff to improve instruction in literacy, math, science,
and other curricular areas necessary to provide a well-rounded education to
students.
(3)Providing support
to mentors working with new teachers.
(4)Providing training in effective
instructional services and classroom management strategies for mainstream
teachers serving students with disabilities and students with limited English
proficiency.
(5)Enabling teachers
to engage in study groups and other collaborative activities and collegial
interactions regarding instruction.
(6)Paying for release
time and substitute teachers in order to enable teachers to participate in the
activities of the teacher center.
(7)Creating libraries
of professional materials and educational technology.
(8)Providing
high-quality professional development for other instructional staff, such as
paraprofessionals, librarians, and counselors.
(9)Assisting teachers
to become highly qualified and paraprofessionals to become teachers.
(10)Assisting
paraprofessionals to meet the requirements of section 1119.
(11)Developing
curricula.
(12)Incorporating
additional on-line professional development resources for participants.
(13)Providing funding
for individual- or group-initiated classroom projects.
(14)Developing
partnerships with businesses and community-based organizations.
(15)Establishing a
teacher center site.
(f)Teacher center
policy board
(1)A teacher center receiving assistance under this section
shall be operated under the supervision of a teacher center policy
board.
(2)
(A)The majority
of the members of a teacher center policy board shall be representatives of,
and selected by, the elementary and secondary school teachers to be served by
the teacher center. Such representatives shall be selected through the teacher
organization, or if there is no teacher organization, by the teachers
directly.
(B)The members of a teacher center policy
board—
(i)shall include at
least two members who are representatives of, or designated by, the school
board of the local educational agency to be served by the teacher
center;
(ii)shall include at
least one member who is a representative of, and is designated by, the
institutions of higher education (with departments or schools of education)
located in the area; and
(iii)may include
paraprofessionals.
(g)
(1)To seek a grant under this section, an eligible entity
shall submit an application at such time, in such manner, and accompanied by
such information as the Secretary may reasonably require.
(2)An application under paragraph (1) shall include an
assurance that the applicant will require any teacher center receiving
assistance through the grant to comply with the requirements of this
section.
(3)Teacher center
policy boardAn application under paragraph (1) shall include the
following:
(A)An assurance
that—
(i)the applicant has
established a teacher center policy board;
(ii)the board
participated fully in the preparation of the application; and
(iii)the board
approved the application as submitted.
(B)A description of
the membership of the board and the method of its selection.
(h)In
this section:
(1)The term
eligible entity means a local educational agency or a consortium
of 2 or more local educational agencies.
(2)The term high-need means, with
respect to an elementary school or a secondary school, a school that serves an
eligible school attendance area in which not less than 65 percent of the
children are from low-income families, based on the number of children eligible
for free and reduced priced lunches under the Richard B. Russell National
School Lunch Act, or in which not less than 65 percent of the children enrolled
are from such families.
(3)The term
high-need local educational agency means a local educational
agency—
(A)that serves not
fewer than 10,000 children from families with incomes below the poverty line,
or for which not less than 20 percent of the children served by the agency are
from families with incomes below the poverty line; and
(B)that is having or
expected to have difficulty filling teacher vacancies or hiring new teachers
who are highly qualified.
(4)The term
teacher center policy board means a teacher center policy board
described in subsection (f).
(i)Authorization of
appropriationsTo carry out this section, there are authorized to
be appropriated $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2007 and such sums as may be
necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal
years.
.
(b)The table of contents at section 2 of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.) is amended by
inserting after the items relating to part D of title II of such Act the
following new items:
Part E—Teacher Retention
Sec. 2501. Teacher
Centers.
.