To authorize the Secretary of Education to award contracts to nonprofit organizations with national experience that enter into partnerships with local educational agencies to turn around low-performing public high schools.

Summary: Turning Around Low-Performing Public High Schools Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award five-year contracts to nonprofit school district partnership organizations that: (1) have a record of success in improving the secondary school graduation and postsecondary attendance and completion rates of disadvantaged students; and (2) partner with local educational agencies (LEAs) that serve a substantial number or percentage of disadvantaged students to implement comprehensive high school turnaround models that are customized to meet the needs of the LEAs and their schools.

Requires such models to include: (1) a college preparatory instructional program; (2) a student support structure that provides students with a caring, safe, and supportive learning environment; (3) a staffing structure that creates strong, long-term connections between students and teachers; (4) standards of professional practice that guide the professional development of school personnel and build their sense of collective responsibility for student and school outcomes; (5) an extended day and extended school year that supports challenging, college-preparatory curricula; (6) an expectation that parents will take an active role in school activities; and (7) the use of multiple mechanisms to assess schools' organizational and program effectiveness.

Directs: (1) the Secretary to select an independent entity to conduct a triennial evaluation of the performance of students who attend turnaround schools; and (2) school district partnership organizations to report annually on the implementation of comprehensive high school turnaround models and student achievement in partner schools. Requires copies of such evaluations and reports to be provided to the Secretary and Congress.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Turning Around Low-Performing Public 
High Schools Act''.

SEC. 2. 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.

SEC. 3. 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.