[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23369]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           TEXT OF AMENDMENTS

  SA 1787. Mrs. FEINSTEIN proposed an amendment to amendment SA 1783 
proposed by Mr. DeWine (for himself and Ms. Landrieu) to the bill H.R. 
2765, making appropriations for the government of the District of 
Columbia and other activities chargeable in whole or in part against 
the revenues of said District for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
2004, and for other purposes; as follows:

       On page 31, strike line 13 and all that follows through 
     page 32, line 2, and insert the following:
       (c) Student Assessments.--The Secretary may not approve an 
     application from an eligible entity for a grant under this 
     title unless the eligible entity's application--
       (1) ensures that the eligible entity will--
       (A) assess the academic achievement of all participating 
     eligible students;
       (B) use the same assessments every school year that are 
     used for school year 2003-2004 by the District of Columbia 
     Public Schools to assess the achievement of District of 
     Columbia public school students under section 1111(b)(3)(A) 
     of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 
     U.S.C. 6311(b)(3)(A)), to assess participating eligible 
     students in the same grades as such public school students;
       (C) provide assessment results and other relevant 
     information to the Secretary or to the entity conducting the 
     evaluation under section 9 so that the Secretary or the 
     entity, respectively, can conduct an evaluation that shall 
     include, but not be limited to, a comparison of the academic 
     achievement of participating eligible students in the 
     assessments described in this subsection to the achievement 
     of--
       (i) students in the same grades in the District of Columbia 
     public schools; and
       (ii) the eligible students in the same grades in District 
     of Columbia public schools who sought to participate in the 
     scholarship program but were not selected; and
       (D) disclose any personally identifiable information only 
     to the parents of the student to whom the information 
     relates; and
       (2) describes how the eligible entity will ensure that the 
     parents of each student who applies for a scholarship under 
     this title (regardless of whether the student receives the 
     scholarship), and the parents of each student participating 
     in the scholarship program under this title, agree that the 
     student will participate in the assessments used by the 
     District of Columbia Public Schools to assess the achievement 
     of District of Columbia public school students under section 
     1111(b)(3)(A) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
     of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311(b)(3)(A)), for the period for which 
     the student applied for or received the scholarship, 
     respectively.
       (d) Independent Evaluation.--The Secretary and Mayor of the 
     District of Columbia shall jointly select an independent 
     entity to evaluate annually the performance of students who 
     received scholarships under the 5-year pilot program under 
     this title, and shall make the evaluations public. The first 
     evaluation shall be completed and made available not later 
     than 6 months after the entity is selected pursuant to the 
     preceding sentence.
       (e) Teacher Quality.--Each teacher who instructs 
     participating eligible students under the scholarship program 
     shall possess a college degree.

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