To provide grants to universities and colleges for the development of student success services that will improve college persistence and prepare students for the workplace.

Summary: College Student Success Act - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Education to establish a pilot program awarding competitive, matching, Student Success grants to institutions of higher education in which, during the preceding three-year period, an average of at least 50% of entering first-year students were enrolled in developmental courses to bring their reading, writing, or mathematics skills up to college-level.

Requires the grants to be used to help Pell grant eligible students persevere in postsecondary education, beginning from their first year of study. Requires such help to include the assignment of a Student Success Coach to every student participant to provide intensive career and academic advising, ongoing personal help in navigating college services, and assistance in connecting to community resources that can help students overcome family and personal challenges to success.

Gives grant priority to schools proposing to replicate policies and practices that have proven effective in increasing persistence and completion by low-income students or students in need of developmental education.

Provides that the size of each grant shall be based on the number of a grantee's student participants; but limits each school to no more than 200 participants each academic year.

Directs the Secretary to provide technical assistance to grantees who, after three years, are not significantly improving their student participants' perseverance in their studies.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``College Student Success Act''.

SEC. 2. STUDENT SUCCESS GRANTS.

    Part A of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1057 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

                  ``Subpart 9--Student Success Grants

``SEC. 420K. STUDENT SUCCESS GRANTS.

    ``(a) Authorization of Pilot Program.--The Secretary is authorized 
to award grants on a competitive basis, subject to the availability of 
appropriations, to eligible institutions for the purposes of helping 
low-income students succeed in persisting in and completing 
postsecondary education and training programs.
    ``(b) Definitions.--
            ``(1) Eligible institution.--In this section, the term 
        `eligible institution' means an institution of higher education 
        (as defined in section 101(a)) in which, during the three-year 
        period preceding the year in which the institution is applying 
        for a grant under this section, an average of not less than 50 
        percent of the institution's entering first-year students are 
        enrolled in developmental courses to bring reading, writing, or 
        mathematics skills up to college-level.
            ``(2) Eligible student.--In this section, the term 
        `eligible student' means a student who--
                    ``(A) is eligible to receive assistance under 
                section 401;
                    ``(B) is a first-year student at the time of 
                entering the pilot; and
                    ``(C) is selected by an eligible institution to 
                participate in the pilot.
    ``(c) Application.--An eligible institution seeking a grant under 
this section shall submit an application to the Secretary at such time, 
in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may 
require.
    ``(d) Grant Amounts.--
            ``(1) Institutional grants.--For a given year, each 
        institution selected to participate in this pilot program shall 
        receive an amount equal to the amount of a Student Success 
        Grant multiplied by the number of students the institution 
        selects to participate in the pilot program in such year. An 
        institution shall not select more than 200 students to 
        participate in the pilot program under this section during any 
        academic year.
            ``(2) Grants to students.--The amount of a Student Success 
        Grant provided to an eligible institution on behalf of an 
        eligible student under this section shall be $1,500 per student 
        for each award year.
    ``(e) Priority for Replication of Evidence-Based Policies and 
Practices.--The Secretary shall give priority to applications submitted 
by eligible institutions that propose to replicate policies and 
practices that have proven effective in increasing persistence and 
completion by low-income students or students in need of developmental 
education.
    ``(f) Peer Review.--The Secretary shall convene a peer review 
process to review applications for grants under this section and to 
make recommendations to the Secretary regarding the selection of 
grantees. Members of the peer review committee shall be a mix of 
researchers and practitioners who are recognized experts on services 
and policies to increase low income student success in postsecondary 
education and training. No member of the committee shall be in a 
position to benefit financially from the grants to eligible 
institutions under subsection (d)(1).
    ``(g) Mandatory Uses.--An eligible institution that receives a 
grant under this section shall use the grant funds to assign a Student 
Success Coach to every first-year student participating in the pilot to 
provide intensive career and academic advising, ongoing personal help 
in navigating college services such as financial aid and registration, 
and assistance in connecting to community resources that can help 
students overcome family and personal challenges to success. Student 
Success Coaches--
            ``(1) shall work with not more than 50 new students during 
        any academic period;
            ``(2) may be employees of academic departments, student 
        services offices, community-based organizations, or other 
        entities as deemed appropriate by the institution; and
            ``(3) shall meet with each eligible student selected for 
        the pilot before registration for courses.
    ``(h) Permissible Uses.--An eligible institution that receives a 
grant under this section may use the grant funds to provide services 
and program innovations for students participating in the pilot, 
including the following:
            ``(1) College and career success courses, with tuition and 
        fees for the course covered by the Student Success Grant. These 
        courses should cover college success topics, such as how to 
        take notes, how to study, how to take tests, and how to budget 
        time, and should also include a substantial career exploration 
        component. Institutions are encouraged to use such courses to 
        help students develop a College and Career Success Plan so that 
        by the end of the first semester the students have a clear 
        sense of their career goals and what classes to take to achieve 
        such goals.
            ``(2) Work-study jobs with private employers in the 
        students' fields of study.
            ``(3) Learning communities that ensure that students 
        participating in the pilot are clustered together for at least 
        two courses beginning in the first semester after enrolling and 
        have other opportunities to create and maintain bonds that 
        allow them to provide academic and social support to each 
        other.
            ``(4) Curricular redesign, which may include such 
        innovations as `blended' or accelerated remediation classes 
        that help Student Success Grant recipients to attain college-
        level reading, writing, math skills (or a combination thereof) 
        more rapidly than traditional remediation formats allow, and 
        intensive skills refresher classes, offered prior to each 
        semester, to help students who have tested into remedial 
        coursework to reach entry level assessment scores for the 
        postsecondary programs they wish to enter.
            ``(5) Instructional support, such as learning labs, 
        supplemental instruction, and tutoring.
            ``(6) Assistance with support services, such as child care 
        and transportation.
    ``(i) Grant Period; Additional Technical Assistance.--
            ``(1) Grant period.--Grants made under this section shall 
        be for a period of not less than 60 months.
            ``(2) Additional technical assistance.--After 36 months, 
        the Secretary shall review the performance of the Student 
        Success Grant pilot students at each institution, and if no 
        significant improvements have been made by Student Success 
        Grant pilot students in persistence and completion at an 
        institution, then the Secretary shall provide additional 
        technical assistance to help the institution improve outcomes.
    ``(j) Required Non-Federal Share.--
            ``(1) In general.--Each institution participating in the 
        pilot program under this section shall provide a non-Federal 
        match of 25 percent of the grant. The non-Federal share under 
        this section may be provided in cash or in kind.
            ``(2) Effect on need analysis.--For the purpose of 
        calculating a student's need in accordance with part F of this 
        title, services or benefits under this section shall not be 
        considered an asset or income.
    ``(k) Technical Assistance.--The Secretary shall enter into 
contracts with private entities to provide such technical assistance to 
grantees under this section as the Secretary determines appropriate.
    ``(l) Evaluation.--
            ``(1) Outcome evaluations.--The Secretary shall conduct an 
        evaluation of program outcomes under the pilot program, and 
        shall disseminate to the public the findings from the 
        evaluation and information on best practices. The Secretary is 
        encouraged to partner with other providers of funds, such as 
        private foundations, to allow for use of an experimental or 
        quasi-experimental evaluation in at least one of the pilot 
        sites.
            ``(2) Institutional participation.--As a condition of 
        receiving grants under this section, participating institutions 
        shall work with the evaluator to track persistence and 
        completion outcomes for students in the pilot program, 
        specifically the proportion of these students who take and 
        complete developmental education courses, the proportion who 
        take and complete college-level coursework, and the proportion 
        who complete certificates and degrees. This data shall be 
        broken down by race, ethnicity, and age and the evaluator shall 
        assist institutions in analyzing this data to compare Student 
        Success Grant pilot participants to comparable nonparticipants, 
        using statistical techniques to control for differences in the 
        groups.
            ``(3) Annual reports.--Participating institutions shall 
        report on the data specified in paragraph (2) annually and the 
        Secretary shall make this data publicly available.
    ``(m) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $35,000,000 for the period 
beginning with fiscal year 2008 and ending with fiscal year 2012, of 
which not more than $5,000,000 may be used to carry out subsections (k) 
and (l).''.