1.
This Act may be cited as the
Graduation Really Achieves Dreams Act
or the GRAD
Act
.
2.
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 1/3 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
1/3 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 3,000 secondary school students drop out of school.
(5)
Alaska Natives have a
substantially higher dropout rate than all other students in Alaska as a group.
The dropout rate is 8.8 percent for Alaska Natives compared to 4.7 percent for
the 2001–2002 school year for other students in Alaska.
(6)
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 of secondary school than students in the next
highest quarter of academic achievement, and are 20 times more likely to drop
out than high achieving students.
(7)
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
9th grader performs at only the 5th or 6th grade level in reading.
(8)
During the 2002–2003 school
year Alaska Benchmark Examinations, significantly lower percentages of Alaska
Natives were proficient in reading, writing, and mathematics at each of the 3
tested grade levels when compared to all other students. These achievement gaps
persist into secondary school, where significantly lower percentages of Alaska
Natives were proficient in the subjects tested on the Alaska High School
Graduation Qualifying Examination in all grade levels where that test was
administered in 2002–2003 school year.
(9)
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.
(10)
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.
(11)
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.
(12)
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.
(13)
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.
(14)
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 Forces no longer accept secondary school dropouts and
put less value on alternative certificates.
(15)
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.
(16)
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. And for
students who dropped out of secondary school, the number drops further to 4 in
10.
(17)
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.
(18)
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.
(19)
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.
3.
In this Act:
(1)
The term at-risk
has the same meaning given such term in section 1432 of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6472).
(2)
The term feeder
pattern means a secondary school and the elementary schools and middle
schools that channel students into that secondary school.
(3)
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).
(4)
The term
Secretary means the Secretary of Education.
4.
(a)
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, college attendance, and college
completion rates for at-risk students; and
(2)
to promote the establishment
of new programs to implement such integrated education reform services.
(b)
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, college
attendance, and college completion rates for at-risk 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 Project
GRAD 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 at-risk 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 reading, mathematics, classroom management, social service, and
college access programs 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 activities to further
articulate a program for 1 or more grade levels and across grade levels, to
tailor a program for a particular target audience, and to 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, college attendance, and college completion
rates for at-risk students; and
(F)
other activities directly
related to improving secondary school graduation, college attendance, and
college completion rates for at-risk students; and
(3)
use grant funds available
under this Act to pay—
(A)
to subcontractors the amount
determined under subsection (f); and
(B)
the costs associated with
carrying out the activities described in paragraph (2).
(d)
(1)
The subcontractor programs
referred to in subsection (c)(1) shall be known as Project GRAD
programs
.
(2)
Each subcontractor shall
implement a Project GRAD program and shall, with the agreement of the
grantee—
(A)
identify or establish not
less than 1 feeder pattern of public schools; 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 shall include—
(A)
research-based programs in
reading, mathematics, and classroom management;
(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,
college attendance, and college completion rates.
(e)
Of the funds made available
under this Act, not more than 8 percent, 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 subsection (c) (1)
and (2).
(f)
Grantee contribution and matching requirement
(1)
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, including reading and
mathematics achievement and, where applicable, secondary school graduation,
college attendance, and college completion rates.
(2)
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)
The grantee may waive, in
whole or in part, the requirement of paragraph (2) for a subcontractor, if the
subcontractor—
(A)
demonstrates that the
subcontractor 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)
(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)
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)
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.
5.
Authorization of appropriations
There are authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this Act $27,000,000 for fiscal year 2006, and such
sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.