TheWeekInCongress.com
Week Ending June 4, 2004
HR 4444 Back to Work Incentive Act of 2003
{Editor's Note: the original bill was HR 444 and was replaced with HR 4444. To make things even more complicated the text of two other bills, HR 4409 and HR 4411,were incorporated into HR 4444. Those bills are explained below or you can link to them individually here→(HR 4409 and HR 4411.}
BRIEF
The bill would provide for grants to States to allocate funds to local areas for the establishment of personal reemployment accounts for individuals likely to exhaust their unemployment compensation and who are in need of job search assistance. It would permit certain amounts in the accounts to be used for income support. The bill would provide for reemployment bonuses.
Other individuals would be eligible for the accounts if their unemployment can be attributed to unfair competition from Federal Prison Industries, Inc. States are allowed to establish additional eligibility and priorities.
The accounts would be intended to accelerate reemployment, promote retention in employment, and give individuals more flexibility, choice, and control in obtaining intensive reemployment, training, and supportive services (as well as assistance in purchasing or leasing an automobile when necessary to allow the recipient to accept a long-term employment offer).
The account recipients could purchase the training or supportive services or a local workforce investment board could make them on behalf of the recipient through a “one-stop” delivery system.
States would be required to establish a uniform statewide amount, up to $3,000, for each individual account. The time in which the account money can be used is limited to one year after the account is created. No accounts can be created beginning two years after HR 4444 is enacted.
The bill would also include HR 4409 to
reauthorize title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965 sponsored by
representative Phil Gringrey (R-GA) that passed the house by voice vote and HR
4411 to amend title VII of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to ensure graduate
opportunities in postsecondary education. Sponsored by Representative Max Burns
(R-GA) that passed the House by voice vote.
Sponsor: Representative Jon C. Porter (R-NV)
HR 4409 Teacher Training Enhancement Act and HR 4411 Priorities for Graduate Studies Act of 2004
BRIEF
HR 4409
In the context of America’s need to hire 2.2 million teachers in the next ten years Congress has focused on the preparation of teachers to teach American youth. The bill is aimed, through three grant programs, to improve student academic achievement, improve the quality of the current and future teaching force by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities. The bill also aims to hold institutions of higher education accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers; and to recruit qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.
Qualifying States would receive federal grants. The grants are divided as sec 202 for State grants, sec 203 for partnership grants and section 204 for teacher recruitment grants.
HR 4411 is a revision of graduate programs such that the graduates would be more qualified to teach students challenged by the English language and other areas of study. Both HR4409 and HR 4411 were included in another recently passed bill HR 4444 which replaced HR 444.
Sponsor: Representative Phil Gingrey (R-GA)
Vote: Passed House by voice vote.
Cost to the taxpayer: $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2004 and such sums as may be necessary for each of the 4 succeeding fiscal years. 45 % shall be available each year for 202 ($135 million), 45 % for 203 ($135 million) and 10 % for 204 ($30 million). The bill would provide another $10 million for a series of $500,000 grants to establish ‘centers of excellence’, essentially programs to improve and enhance teacher skills and results.
MORE INFORMATION
HR 4409
The over all goal of HR 4409 would be to improve student academic achievement, improve the quality of the current and future teaching force by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities; hold institutions of higher education accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers; and recruiting qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.
The grant funds could be used to retrain faculty; and design (or redesign) teacher preparation programs so they are based on rigorous academic content, scientifically based research (including scientifically based reading research), and challenging State student academic content standards.
STATE GRANTS
To promote strong teaching skills the State would provide:
For reforming teacher certification (including recertification) or licensing requirements to ensure that teachers have the subject matter knowledge and teaching skills in the academic subjects that the teachers teach that are necessary to help students meet challenging State student academic achievement standards; and that such requirements are aligned with challenging State academic content standards.
For alternatives to traditional teacher preparation and certification by providing prospective teachers with alternative routes to State certification and traditional preparation to become highly qualified teachers through innovative approaches that reduce unnecessary barriers to State certification while producing highly qualified teachers, programs that provide support to teachers during their initial years in the profession; and alternative routes to State certification of teachers for qualified individuals, including mid-career professionals from other occupations, former military personnel, and recent college graduates with records of academic distinction.
For planning and implementing innovative programs to enhance the ability of institutions of higher education to prepare highly qualified teachers, such as charter colleges of education or university and local educational agency partnership schools, that permit flexibility in meeting State requirements as long as graduates, during their initial years in the profession, increase student academic achievement; providing long-term data gathered from teachers' performance over multiple years in the classroom on the ability to increase student academic achievement; ensure high-quality preparation of teachers from underrepresented groups; and creating performance measures that can be used to document the effectiveness of innovative methods for preparing highly qualified teachers.
For providing merit pay to reward teachers who increase student academic achievement; and strategies that provide differential and bonus pay in high-need local educational agencies to retain principals; highly qualified teachers who teach in high-need academic subjects, such as reading, mathematics, and science; highly qualified teachers who teach in schools identified for school improvement, teachers specializing in teaching limited English proficient children; and highly qualified teachers in urban and rural schools or districts.
For developing, or assisting local educational agencies in developing, teacher advancement and retention initiatives that promote professional growth and emphasize multiple career paths (such as paths to becoming a highly qualified mentor teacher or exemplary teacher) and pay differentiation.
For developing and implementing effective mechanisms to ensure that local educational agencies and schools are able to remove expeditiously incompetent or unqualified teachers consistent with procedures to ensure due process for the teachers.
To provide technical assistance to low-performing teacher preparation programs..
To develop systems to measure the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and professional development programs; and strategies to document gains in student academic achievement or increases in teacher mastery of the academic subjects the teachers teach as a result of such programs.
To undertake activities that develop and implement effective mechanisms to ensure that local educational agencies and schools are able effectively to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers; or to improve the qualifications of preschool teachers, which may include State certification for such teachers; and to improve and expand preschool teacher preparation programs.
An eligible State that receives a grant under this section shall develop and utilize a system to evaluate annually the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and professional development activities within the State in producing gains in the teacher's annual contribution to improving student academic achievement, as measured by State academic assessments and teacher mastery of the academic subjects they teach, as measured by pre- and post-participation tests of teacher knowledge, as appropriate.
Such evaluation system shall be used by the State to evaluate activities carried out using funds provided under this section; and the quality of its teacher education programs.
PARTNERSHIP GRANTS
The bill would provide partnership grants that would allow the local education agency to join with other education agencies. A partner institution would include a school of arts and sciences; a high-need local educational agency; and a public or private educational organization; and may include a Governor, State educational agency, the State board of education, the State agency for higher education, a public charter school, a public or private elementary school or secondary school, a public or private educational organization, a business, a science-, mathematics-, or technology-oriented entity, a faith-based or community organization, a prekindergarten program, a teacher organization, an education service agency, a consortia of local educational agencies, or a nonprofit telecommunications entity.
The bill would also provide for teacher recruitment grants that would include funding to develop and implement effective mechanisms to recruit into the teaching profession employees from high-demand industries, including technology industries; and the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering; and to conduct outreach and coordinate with inner city and rural secondary schools to encourage students to pursue teaching as a career.
HR 4411 Priorities for Graduate Studies Act of 2004 –
The bill would revise the Jacob K. Javits fellowship program. By directing the Secretary of Education to give grant priority to institutions of higher education (IHEs) for fellowships to students in advanced linguistic studies and courses that prepare teachers to teach students with limited English proficiency.
The bill would permit IHEs to allow fellowship recipients an interruption of study due to active duty military service or a personal or family member illness. The Secretary would be directed to ensure that one member of the fellowship board will be from a minority-serving institution.
The bill would revise the program of graduate assistance in areas of national need and direct the Secretary to give grant priority to IHEs to prepare mathematics, science and special education faculty who can train highly qualified mathematics, science, or special education teachers for service in elementary and secondary schools. Requirements relating to designation of areas of national need, stipends, and additional assistance would be revised.
The bill would revise requirements for the Thurgood Marshall legal educational opportunity program and revises activities for which the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) is to use program contract and grant funds provided by the Secretary. The grant fund revisions would include use for assisting students to develop analytical skills and study methods; awarding such fellowships to eligible law school students who either participated in summer institutes and are enrolled in an accredited law school or have successfully completed a comparable summer institute certified by CLEO and revise types of program services to provide that undergraduate preparatory courses be in analytical skills and study methods.
Requirements for the Secretary's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education program contracts and grants would be revised and the bill would authorize consideration of applications for projects relating to the needs of nontraditional student populations; distance education delivery through communications technology; and expanded opportunities to enter and reenter postsecondary institutions and pursue study programs tailored to individual needs. Included among special projects international partnerships with postsecondary institutions abroad.
The bill would also eliminate continuation awards under certain parts of title VII of HEA, and the Urban Community Service program (part C of title VII of HEA).
The bill revises requirements for demonstration projects to ensure that students with disabilities receive a quality higher education. Includes among authorized project activities developing innovative, effective, and efficient teaching methods and strategies to ensure such students' smooth transition from high school to postsecondary education; and enable faculty and administrators to provide accessible distance education programs or classes to enhance such students' access to higher education. Requires project grant applications to describe how the IHE will work to replicate the best practices of IHEs with demonstrated success in serving students with disabilities. ## All Rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without written permission from theWeekInCongress.com.