1.This Act may be cited as
the National Writing Project Act of
2007
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2.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.
3.Authorization of
the National Writing ProjectSubpart 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:
2
2331.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.
2332.
(a)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)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 programsThe 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)
(1)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)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)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)
(1)The
National Writing Project shall establish and operate a National Advisory
Board.
(2)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)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)
(1)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)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)
(1)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)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 appropriationsThere 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.
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