[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2862 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2862

    To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to 
   establish an accurate and reliable graduation rate for measuring 
                     student academic achievement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 2007

Mr. Castle (for himself and Mr. McKeon) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to 
   establish an accurate and reliable graduation rate for measuring 
                     student academic achievement.

    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 ``Reliable and Accurate Graduation 
Rate Act''.

SEC. 2. CREATING A RELIABLE AND ACCURATE GRADUATION RATE TO IMPROVE THE 
              ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS.

    Section 1111 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 
(20 U.S.C. 6311) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)(2)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (C)(vi) by striking ``as the 
                percentage of students who graduate from secondary 
                school with a regular diploma in the standard number of 
                years'' and inserting ``in subparagraph (K)'';
                    (B) by redesignating subparagraph (K) as 
                subparagraph (M); and
                    (C) by inserting after subparagraph (J) the 
                following:
                    ``(K) Graduation rate.--
                            ``(i) In general.--For the purpose of this 
                        section, a State shall calculate its graduation 
                        rate by dividing the number of students in the 
                        school or local educational agency who receive 
                        a regular diploma by the number of first time 
                        ninth-grade students who enrolled in the school 
                        or local educational agency four years earlier, 
                        taking into account--
                                    ``(I) the movement of students 
                                transferring into and out of the school 
                                or local educational agency, documented 
                                through such evidence as a transcript, 
                                over the four-year period; and
                                    ``(II) the limited one time 
                                identification of recently arrived 
                                limited English proficient students, 
                                students with documented enrollment in 
                                a fully articulated early college high 
                                school, and children with disabilities 
                                who require a fifth year to receive a 
                                regular high school diploma.
                            ``(ii) Schools and local educational 
                        agencies.--A State shall require local 
                        educational agencies and schools in the State 
                        to calculate its graduation rate consistent 
                        with clause (i).
                    ``(L) Additional completion measures for high 
                school students in alternative settings.--A State may 
                publish and report additional completion measures for 
                those students who completed high school or some 
                equivalent measure in more than four years. Such 
                measures could include those students that dropped out 
                of high school and passed a General Educational 
                Development exam or transferred to an alternative 
                school and successfully completed their education, or 
                those children with disabilities who completed their 
                educational program in more than five years.''.
                                 <all>