Findings

The Congress makes the following findings: (1)Only 70 percent of United States students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1,200,000 students drop out regularly. Almost 50 percent of public high school students in the 50 largest cities of the United States fail to graduate. (2)Only 50 percent of all Black students and 53 percent of Hispanic students graduate from high school. Males fare even worse, with only 43 percent of Black male students and 48 percent of Hispanic male students graduating. (3)High school dropouts are more likely to live in poverty, join gangs, and use drugs. They are more than 8 times as likely to be in jail as a person with a diploma. This results in a lifetime cost for a dropout who moves to a life of crime and drugs of $1,700,000 to $2,300,000. (4)High school turnaround requires a systematic and comprehensive approach that addresses changes in instructional improvement and structural changes in the school organization. (5)Effective turnaround organizations that partner with low-performing local educational agencies and schools can build the capacity of the agencies and schools to reform services and systems. (6)Turnaround partner organizations with experience and expertise at the high school level that have the capacity and flexibility to work nationally are in short supply. (7)Although the funds made available under section 14006 of division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 are designed to help States reform low-performing schools, not all States will qualify to receive the funds, even though they contain low-performing high schools. (8)Not all failing high schools are eligible to receive school improvement grants under section 1003 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. (9)The challenge of high school turnaround exceeds the capacity of many local educational agencies, requiring the expertise of external partnership organizations. (10)Alternative turnaround strategies that do not involve charter schools or were not addressed in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 turnaround model are needed to be able reach all low-performing public high schools.

High school turnaround

(a)

Purposes

The purposes of this section are— (1)to turn around low-performing high schools and increase graduation rates and college readiness for poor and minority graduating high school students; (2)to improve teacher and principal quality in high schools that serve students at risk of dropping out of school; (3)to provide support and assistance to organizations that serve as high school turnaround partners for schools and local educational agencies that may not be eligible to receive funds made available under section 14006 of division A of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in order to improve secondary school graduation, postsecondary program attendance, and postsecondary completion rates for low-income students; and (4)to promote the establishment of new programs to implement high school turnaround that do not involve charter schools or were not addressed in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 turnaround model. (b)

Definitions

In this section: (1)

Comprehensive high school turnaround model

The term comprehensive high school turnaround model means a research-based high school turnaround model that— (A)defines and guides school turnaround, enabling schools to develop strategies for school design that are customized to meet the unique needs of schools and local educational agencies; and (B)includes the following: (i)Establishment of a 5-year partnership between a school district partnership turnaround organization and a local educational agency that begins with a planning period during which the school district turnaround partnership organization works with the local educational agency and school staff to assist them to articulate a school vision, identify staff, recruit students, and implement parent outreach. (ii)A college preparatory instructional program that encourages students to view themselves as future college students, and prepares students for admission to, and success in, college. (iii)A student support structure that personalizes the educational experience, providing students with a caring, safe, and supportive learning environment. (iv)A staffing structure that— (I)personalizes the school environment; (II)creates strong, long-term connections between students and their teachers and counselors; (III)ensures that the support network is engaged and knowledgeable; (IV)generates strong relationships that enable teachers to elicit higher levels of student performance; and (V)can include maintaining the same set of core subject teachers and guidance counselors throughout the four years of high school. (v)Standards of professional practice to build capacity as a professional community and develop a sense of collective responsibility for student and school outcomes. (vi)An extended day and extended school year to enable staff to provide students with structured time, individual attention, and other supports necessary for their success with the school’s challenging, college-preparatory curriculum. (vii)An expectation that parents will take an active role in school activities to share their knowledge of their child with teachers and counselors and to give staff feedback on their children’s experience and progress. (viii)Use of multiple mechanisms to assess a school’s organizational and program effectiveness. (2)

Low-income student

The term low-income student means a student who is determined by a local educational agency to be from a low-income family using the measures described in section 1113(a)(5) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6313(a)(5)). (3)

School district partnership turnaround organization

The term school district partnership turnaround organization means a nonprofit education organization that— (A)has as its primary purpose the improvement of secondary school graduation and postsecondary attendance and completion rates for low-income students; (B)has a comprehensive high school turnaround model that can be successful in multiple, varied schools and States; and (C)has a proven success rate and the ability to implement high school turnaround activities on a large scale. (4)

Secretary

The term Secretary means the Secretary of Education. (c)

Contracts authorized

From the amount appropriated to carry out this section, the Secretary is authorized to award 5-year contracts to school district partnership turnaround organizations that employ comprehensive high school turnaround models. Such a contract shall be used to carry out the requirements of subsection (d) and to implement and sustain integrated and sustained education reform services through subcontractor activities described in subsection (e) at low-performing high schools. (d)

Requirements of contracts

A contract referred to in subsection (c) shall require a school district partnership turnaround organization to accomplish the following: (1)Partner with local educational agencies that— (A)serve a substantial number or percentage of low-income students; and (B)have made a commitment to implement a comprehensive high school turnaround model. (2)Provide a program based on a comprehensive high school turnaround model that reflects the needs of the local educational agencies. (3)Improve teacher quality and develop the capacity of the local educational agencies to continue to implement the comprehensive high school turnaround model after the turnaround partnership has been completed. (4)Develop activities for the purpose of implementing new turnaround sites. (5)Implement activities for the purpose of promoting greater public awareness of the relationship between personalized and academically rigorous high schools and improved attendance, graduation, and college-going rates for low-income students. (e)

Activities at each site

At each turnaround site, the school district partnership turnaround organization shall carry out the following activities: (1)Partner with the school community to design and implement a customized plan of how the comprehensive high school turnaround model is to be implemented so as to produce an increase in the number of students who graduate college-ready. (2)Train school personnel in establishing and implementing student support structures which will result in greater student engagement and school affiliation and promote school safety. (3)Provide student performance data and implementation reports for the purpose of assessing the status of the comprehensive high school turnaround model implementation and school improvement. (4)Provide offsite professional development opportunities, school-based, job-embedded professional development, and opportunities for networking with staff from other turnaround schools and local educational agencies. (5)Work with local educational agency and school administrators, teachers, and counselors to provide guidance regarding turnaround strategies as well as specific content area development. (6)Provide customized professional development activities and technical assistance and onsite coaching to address local needs and interests with the goal of improving teacher quality. (7)Provide assistance in designing and implementing parent engagement activities. (8)Provide assistance with staff and student recruitment. (f)

Activities of assisted schools

Each school assisted under this Act shall carry out the following: (1)Assign an administrator as liaison to the school district partnership turnaround organization who will be responsible for ensuring that the required local educational agency policies, schedules, space, staffing, resources, and other supports are in place to facilitate the implementation of the comprehensive high school turnaround model. (2)Construct a schedule that includes common planning time for school staff and regular meetings of the administration so that all students realize the maximum benefit from the personalization aspects of the program. (3)Assign sufficient teaching staff in the core discipline areas as well as for non-core areas. (4)Ensure that teachers have expertise in the areas they teach, demonstrate commitment to the comprehensive high school turnaround model, and meet local certification requirements. (5)Assign at least one full-time counselor. (6)Design a student support program in collaboration with the school district partnership turnaround organization. (7)Schedule and implement parent orientation and engagement activities. (8)Ensure that staff and administration commit to attending offsite professional development activities. (9)Participate in data collection activities conducted by the school district partnership turnaround organization. (g)

Limitation on administrative costs

Of the funds made available to carry out a contract under this section, a school district partnership turnaround organization shall not use more than 8 percent to pay for administration of the contract. (h)

Evaluation

(1)

Evaluation by Secretary

The Secretary shall select an independent entity to evaluate, every 3 years, the performance of students who attend a turnaround school. The evaluation— (A)shall be conducted using a rigorous research design for determining the effectiveness of the comprehensive high school turnaround model; and (B)shall compare course achievement, secondary school graduation rates, and post-secondary attendance and completion rates of students who attend schools assisted under this section with those indicators for students of similar backgrounds who do not attend such schools. (2)

Evaluation by organization

A school district partnership turnaround organization— (A)shall require each partner school to provide the turnaround organization access to data on student demographics, student attendance, course grades, suspensions, student safety incidents, graduation rates, relevant test scores, teacher retention, and other such agreed upon information needed to prepare implementation reports; and (B)shall prepare an annual report describing the implementation of the comprehensive high school turnaround model and student achievement in partner schools. (3)

Availability of evaluation

Copies of any evaluation or report prepared under this subsection shall be made available to the Secretary and the Congress. (i)

Authorization of appropriations

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this Act such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2011 and each of the 5 succeeding fiscal years.