[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1015 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1015

              To reauthorize the National Writing Project.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 28, 2007

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
              To reauthorize 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. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Writing Project Act of 
2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The United States is facing 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 English 
        language learners, the increasing numbers of adolescents who 
        are low-achieving writers, 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 show that nearly one-third of high 
        school graduates are not ready for college-level English 
        composition courses.
            (4) Writing is a threshold skill for both employment and 
        promotion. Deficiencies in writing skills have resulted in 
        annual private sector costs for providing writing training that 
        are as high as $3,100,000,000.
            (5) Writing is a central feature in State and school 
        district education standards in all disciplines.
            (6) 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.
            (7) Evaluations of the National Writing Project document 
        significant gains in student performance in writing and 
        effective classroom practices.
            (8) The National Writing Project has become a model for 
        programs to improve teaching in such other fields as 
        mathematics, science, history, civics and government, 
        geography, reading and literature, technology, performing arts, 
        and foreign languages.
            (9) Each year, more than 135,000 teachers directly benefit 
        from National Writing Project programs in nearly 200 sites 
        located in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the 
        Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin 
        Islands.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT.

    Subpart 2 of part C of title II of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6701 et seq.) is amended to read as 
follows:

                 ``Subpart 2--National Writing Project

``SEC. 2331. PURPOSES.

    ``The purposes of this subpart are--
            ``(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 subpart 
        with activities assisted under this Act.

``SEC. 2332. NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT.

    ``(a) Authorization.--The Secretary is authorized to award a grant 
to the National Writing Project, a nonprofit educational organization 
that has as its primary purpose the improvement of the quality of 
student writing and learning (hereafter in this section referred to as 
the `grantee') to improve the teaching of writing and the use of 
writing as a part of the learning process in our Nation's classrooms.
    ``(b) Requirements of Grant.--The grant shall provide that--
            ``(1) the grantee will enter into contracts with 
        institutions of higher education or other nonprofit educational 
        providers (hereafter in this section referred to as 
        `contractors') under which the contractors will agree to 
        establish, operate, and provide the non-Federal share of the 
        cost of teacher training programs in effective approaches and 
        processes for the teaching of writing;
            ``(2) funds made available by the Secretary to the grantee 
        pursuant to any contract entered into under this section will 
        be used to pay the Federal share of the cost of establishing 
        and operating teacher training programs as provided in 
        paragraph (1); and
            ``(3) the grantee will meet such other conditions and 
        standards as the Secretary determines to be necessary to assure 
        compliance with the provisions of this section and will provide 
        such technical assistance as may be necessary to carry out the 
        provisions of this section.
    ``(c) Teacher Training Programs.--The teacher training programs 
described in subsection (b) shall--
            ``(1) be conducted during the school year and during the 
        summer months;
            ``(2) train teachers who teach grades kindergarten through 
        college;
            ``(3) select teachers to become members of a National 
        Writing Project teacher network whose members will conduct 
        writing workshops for other teachers in the area served by each 
        National Writing Project site; and
            ``(4) encourage teachers from all disciplines to 
        participate in such teacher training programs.
    ``(d) Federal Share.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2) or 
        (3) and for purposes of subsection (b), the term `Federal 
        share' means, with respect to the costs of teacher training 
        programs described in subsection (b), 50 percent of such costs 
        to the contractor.
            ``(2) Waiver.--The Secretary may waive the provisions of 
        paragraph (1) on a case-by-case basis if the National Advisory 
        Board described in subsection (e) determines, on the basis of 
        financial need, that such waiver is necessary.
            ``(3) Maximum.--The Federal share of the costs of teacher 
        training programs conducted pursuant to subsection (b) may not 
        exceed $150,000 for any one contractor, or $300,000 for a 
        statewide program administered by any one contractor in at 
        least five sites throughout the State.
    ``(e) National Advisory Board.--
            ``(1) Establishment.--The National Writing Project shall 
        establish and operate a National Advisory Board.
            ``(2) Composition.--The National Advisory Board established 
        pursuant to paragraph (1) shall consist of--
                    ``(A) national educational leaders;
                    ``(B) leaders in the field of writing; and
                    ``(C) such other individuals as the National 
                Writing Project determines necessary.
            ``(3) Duties.--The National Advisory Board established 
        pursuant to paragraph (1) shall--
                    ``(A) advise the National Writing Project on 
                national issues related to student writing and the 
                teaching of writing;
                    ``(B) review the activities and programs of the 
                National Writing Project; and
                    ``(C) support the continued development of the 
                National Writing Project.
    ``(f) Evaluation.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall conduct an 
        independent evaluation by grant or contract of the teacher 
        training programs administered pursuant to this subpart. Such 
        evaluation shall specify the amount of funds expended by the 
        National Writing Project and each contractor receiving 
        assistance under this section for administrative costs. The 
        results of such evaluation shall be made available to the 
        appropriate committees of Congress.
            ``(2) Funding limitation.--The Secretary shall reserve not 
        more than $150,000 from the total amount appropriated pursuant 
        to the authority of subsection (h) for fiscal year 2008 and 
        each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years to conduct the evaluation 
        described in paragraph (1).
    ``(g) Application Review.--
            ``(1) Review board.--The National Writing Project shall 
        establish and operate a National Review Board that shall 
        consist of--
                    ``(A) leaders in the field of research in writing; 
                and
                    ``(B) such other individuals as the National 
                Writing Project determines necessary.
            ``(2) Duties.--The National Review Board shall--
                    ``(A) review all applications for assistance under 
                this subsection; and
                    ``(B) recommend applications for assistance under 
                this subsection for funding by the National Writing 
                Project.
    ``(h) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this subpart $30,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 
and such sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding fiscal 
years.''.
                                 <all>