1.This Act may be cited as the
Ready To Educate All Children Act of
2005
.
2.
(a)Congress makes the following
findings:
(1)An estimated 2,000,000 new teachers will be
needed over the next decade.
(2)Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
States must recruit highly qualified teachers by 2006, yet schools in rural
areas and high poverty schools have trouble attracting and retaining such
teachers.
(3)A 2000 study by the Education Trust reports
that high poverty schools are twice as likely not to have teachers certified in
the fields in which they teach as schools that are not high poverty schools,
which highlights that high poverty schools will need special help to meet the
goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
(4)If the Nation is to improve student
achievement and success in school, the United States must encourage and support
the training and development of our Nation’s teachers, who are the single most
important in-school influence on student learning.
(5)A majority of graduates of schools of
education believe that traditional teacher preparation programs left them ill
prepared for the challenges and rigors of the classroom.
(6)Fewer than 36 percent of new teachers feel
very well prepared to implement curriculum and performance standards.
(7)Highly qualified teachers are more
effective in impacting student academic achievement because such teachers have
high verbal abilities, high content knowledge, and an enhanced ability to know
how to teach the content using appropriate pedagogical strategies.
(8)The difference in annual student
achievement growth between having an effective and ineffective teacher can be
more than 1 grade level of achievement in academic performance.
(9)Studies have consistently documented the
important connection between a teacher’s verbal and cognitive abilities and
student achievement.
(10)Research has shown that there is a positive
effect on student achievement when students are taught by teachers with a
strong subject-matter background.
(11)A study conducted by the New Teacher
Project shows that strategic recruitment may recruit qualified applicants but
many applicants withdraw from the process because of the late hiring timelines
found in urban schools.
(12)The study also reveals that applicants who
withdraw from the hiring process had significantly higher undergraduate GPAs,
were 40 percent more likely to have a degree in their teaching field, and were
significantly more likely to have completed educational coursework than the new
hires.
(13)The study also discovered that education
students feel what matters most to them is a connection with specific schools,
not the district, and the knowledge of where they will teach as early as
possible.
(b)It is the purpose of this Act to provide
grants to teacher preparation programs to better prepare teachers to educate
all children.
3.In this Act:
(1)The term
beginning teacher means a highly qualified teacher who has taught
for not more than 3 years.
(2)The term core
academic subjects means—
(A)mathematics;
(B)science;
(C)reading (or language arts) and
English;
(D)social studies, including history, civics,
political science, government, geography, and economics;
(E)foreign languages; and
(F)fine arts, including music, dance, drama,
and the visual arts.
(3)High poverty
local educational agencyThe
term high poverty local educational agency means a local
educational agency for which the number of children who are served by the
agency, aged 5 though 17, and from families with incomes below the poverty
line—
(A)is not less than 40 percent of the number
of all children served by the agency; or
(B)is more than 15,000.
(4)The term high
poverty school means an elementary school or secondary school that
serves a high number or percentage of children from families with incomes below
the poverty line.
(5)The term
highly qualified has the meaning given such term in
section
9101 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
(6)Institution of
higher educationThe term
institution of higher education—
(A)has the meaning given the term in
section
101(a) of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)); and
(B)if such an institution prepares teachers
and receives Federal funds, means such an institution that—
(i)is in full compliance with the requirements
of section
207 of the Higher Education Act
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1027); and
(ii)does not have a teacher preparation program
identified by a State as low-performing.
(7)The term
local educational agency has the meaning given such term in
section
9101 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
(8)The term local
partner means a high poverty local educational agency or a high poverty
school.
(9)The term mentoring means
activities that consist of structured guidance and regular and ongoing support
for beginning teachers.
(10)The term Secretary means the
Secretary of Education.
(11)The term State means each of
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico.
4.
(a)
(1)The Secretary is
authorized to award grants on a competitive basis to institutions of higher
education to establish a partnership with a local partner to—
(A)establish a clinically-based elementary
school or secondary school teacher training program; or
(B)enhance such institution’s clinically-based
elementary school or secondary school teacher training program.
(2)The partnership
described in paragraph (1) may include a nonprofit organization.
(b)
(1)An institution of
higher education that desires to receive a grant under subsection (a) shall
submit an application to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and
containing such information as the Secretary may reasonably require.
(2)The institution of higher education shall
develop the application in collaboration with 1 or more local partners.
(3)Each application submitted pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall include—
(A)a description of any shortages in the
State, where the institution of higher education is located, of highly
qualified teachers in high poverty schools in core academic subjects;
(B)an assessment of the needs of beginning
teachers in high poverty schools to be effective in the classroom that
is—
(i)developed with the involvement of the local
partner; and
(ii)based on—
(I)student achievement data in core academic
subjects; and
(II)other indicators of the need to fully
prepare beginning teachers;
(C)a description of how the institution of
higher education will use funds made available pursuant to a grant awarded
under this Act to—
(i)improve the quality of the teaching force;
and
(ii)decrease the use of out-of-field placement
of teachers;
(D)a description of how the institution of
higher education will align activities assisted under this Act with challenging
State academic content standards and student academic achievement standards,
and State assessments, by setting numerical, annual improvement goals;
(E)a plan, developed with the extensive
participation of the local partner, for addressing long-term teacher
recruitment, retention, professional development, and mentoring needs;
(F)a description of how the institution of
higher education will assist local educational agencies in implementing
effective and sustained mentoring and other professional development activities
for beginning teachers;
(G)a description of how the institution of
higher education will work with individuals who successfully complete a teacher
education program to become certified or licensed; and
(H)a description of how the institution of
higher education will prepare teachers to succeed in the classroom.
(c)
(1)The Secretary shall
approve an application submitted pursuant to subsection (a) if the application
meets the requirements of this section and holds reasonable promise of
achieving the purpose of this Act.
(2)In awarding grants under this section, the
Secretary shall give priority to an institution of higher education that is in
partnership with a nonprofit organization that is a teacher union or group
representing teachers in a school, that proposes to establish a track for
hiring teachers in urban or rural high need schools participating in the
partnership prior to July 1 of an academic year.
(3)To the extent
practicable, the Secretary shall ensure an equitable geographic distribution of
grants under this section among the regions of the United States.
(4)The Secretary is
authorized to make grants under this section for a period of 5 years. At the
end of the 5-year period, the grant recipient may apply for an additional grant
under this section.
(d)
(1)An institution of higher
education that receives a grant under this section shall use the grant funds
to—
(A)establish a partnership with a local
partner to establish, or enhance an existing, clinically-based elementary
school or secondary school teacher training program to better train teachers
for challenges in the classroom;
(B)facilitate a partnership among departments
of the institution to ensure that future teachers are prepared to teach;
and
(C)implement a project-based assessment that
facilitates the program evaluation developed under subsection (f) and that
assesses the impact of the activities undertaken with grant funds awarded under
this Act on achieving the purpose of this Act, as well as on institutional
policies and practices.
(2)An institution of
higher education that receives a grant under this section shall use the grant
funds for not less than 3 of the following activities:
(A)The enhancement of high caliber teaching,
including—
(i)enabling faculty to spend additional time
in smaller class settings teaching students pursuing teaching degrees;
(ii)providing—
(I)summer school teaching opportunities for
students pursuing teaching degrees;
(II)additional salary for faculty members who
serve as advisors to students pursuing teaching degrees; or
(III)stipends for students pursuing teaching
degrees.
(B)Opportunities to develop new pedagogical
approaches to teaching, including a focus on content knowledge in academic
areas such as mathematics, science, foreign language development, history,
political science, and special education.
(C)Creation of multidisciplinary courses or
programs that formalize collaborations for the purpose of improved student
instruction.
(D)Expansion of innovative mentoring or
tutoring programs proven to enhance recruitment of students pursuing teaching
degrees or persistence in obtaining a teaching degree.
(E)Improvement of undergraduate science,
mathematics, engineering, and technology education for nonmajors, including
teacher education majors.
(e)Each institution of
higher education that receives a grant under this section shall demonstrate a
financial commitment to such institution’s school of education by contributing,
either directly or through private contributions, non-Federal matching funds
equal to 20 percent of the amount of the grant.
(f)Assessment,
evaluation, and dissemination of information
(1)Not later than 180
days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall award not
less than 1 grant or contract to an independent evaluative organization
to—
(A)develop metrics for measuring the impact of
the activities authorized under this section on—
(i)the number of students enrolled in
education classes;
(ii)academic achievement of students pursuing
teaching degrees, including quantifiable measurements of students’ mastery of
content and skills, such as students’ grade point averages;
(iii)persistence in completing a teaching
degree, including students who transfer from departments of education to
programs in other academic disciplines; and
(iv)placement during the 2 years after degree
completion in public schools and an evaluation of the teachers’
performance;
(B)conduct an evaluation of the impacts of the
activities authorized under this section, including a comparison of the funded
projects to identify best practices with respect to achieving the purpose of
this Act.
(2)Dissemination
of informationThe Secretary
shall disseminate, biannually, information on the activities and the results of
the projects assisted under this section, including best practices, to
institutions of higher education that receive a grant under this section and
other interested institutions of higher education.
(g)Notwithstanding
any other provision of law, a student who participates in a clinically-based
teacher training program funded under this Act shall be eligible for student
assistance under title IV of the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq.) during such
student’s fifth year of a program of study for obtaining a teaching degree, if
the fifth year of the program of study is required under such clinically-based
program in order for students to obtain the teaching degree.
5.Authorization of
appropriationsThere is
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act $200,000,000 for each of
fiscal years 2006 through 2011.