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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 514

To improve the National Writing Project.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 3, 1999

Mr. COCHRAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To improve the National Writing Project.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL WRITING

4 PROJECT.

5 (a) FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.—Section 10991 of the

6 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20

7 U.S.C. 8331) is amended to read as follows:

8 ‘‘SEC. 10991. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

9 ‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

10 ‘‘(1) the United States faces a continuing crisis

11 in writing in schools and in the workplace;
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1 ‘‘(2) the writing problem has been magnified by

2 the rapidly changing student population, the growing

3 number of at-risk students due to limited English

4 proficiency, the shortage of adequately trained

5 teachers, and the specialized knowledge required of

6 teachers to teach students with special needs who

7 are now part of mainstream classrooms;

8 ‘‘(3) nationwide reports from universities and

9 colleges show that entering students are unable to

10 meet the demands of college level writing, almost all

11 2-year institutions of higher education offer remedial

12 writing courses, and three-quarters of public 4-year

13 institutions of higher education and half of all pri14 vate 4-year institutions of higher education must

15 provide remedial courses in writing;

16 ‘‘(4) American businesses and corporations are

17 concerned about the limited writing skills of both

18 entry-level workers and executives whose promotions

19 are denied due to inadequate writing abilities;

20 ‘‘(5) writing is fundamental to learning, includ21 ing learning to read, yet writing has been neglected

22 historically in schools and in teacher training institu23 tions;

24 ‘‘(6) writing is a central feature in State and

25 school district education standards in all disciplines;
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1 ‘‘(7) since 1973, the only national program to

2 address the writing problem in the Nation’s schools

3 has been the National Writing Project, a network of

4 collaborative university-school programs the goals of

5 which are to improve student achievement in writing

6 and student learning through improving the teaching

7 and uses of writing at all grade levels and in all dis8 ciplines;

9 ‘‘(8) the National Writing Project is a nation10 ally recognized and honored nonprofit organization

11 that improves the quality of teaching and teachers

12 through developing teacher leaders who teach other

13 teachers in summer and school year programs;

14 ‘‘(9) evaluations of the National Writing

15 Project document the positive impact the project has

16 had on improving the teaching of writing, student

17 performance in writing, and student learning;

18 ‘‘(10) the National Writing Project has become

19 a model for programs to improve teaching in such

20 other fields as mathematics, science, history, reading

21 and literature, performing arts and foreign lan22 guages;

23 ‘‘(11) each year over 150,000 participants bene24 fit from National Writing Project programs in 1 of
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1 156 United States sites located in 46 States and the

2 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and

3 ‘‘(12) the National Writing Project is a cost-ef4 fective program and leverages over 6 dollars for

5 every 1 Federal dollar.

6 ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this part—

7 ‘‘(1) to support and promote the expansion of

8 the National Writing Project network of sites so

9 that teachers in every region of the United States

10 will have access to a National Writing Project pro11 gram;

12 ‘‘(2) to ensure the consistent high quality of the

13 sites through ongoing review, evaluation and tech14 nical assistance;

15 ‘‘(3) to support and promote the establishment

16 of programs to disseminate effective practices and

17 research findings about the teaching of writing; and

18 ‘‘(4) to coordinate activities assisted under this

19 part with activities assisted under this Act.’’.

20 (b) AUTHORIZATION.—Subsection (a) of section

21 10992 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332(a)) is amended to

22 read as follows:

23 ‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary is authorized

24 to make a grant to the National Writing Project (hereafter

25 in this section referred to as the ‘grantee’), a nonprofit
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1 educational organization that has as its primary purpose

2 the improvement of the quality of student writing and

3 learning, to improve the teaching and uses of writing to

4 learn in our Nation’s classrooms.’’.

5 (c) FEDERAL SHARE.—Paragraph (3) of section

6 10992(d) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332(d)) is amended to

7 read as follows:

8 ‘‘(3) MAXIMUM.—The Federal share of the

9 costs of teacher training programs conducted pursu10 ant to subsection (a) may not exceed $100,000 for

11 any one contractor, or $200,000 for a statewide pro12 gram administered by any one contractor in at least

13 five sites throughout the State.

14 (d) REPEAL OF CLASSROOM TEACHER GRANTS.—

15 Section 10992 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332) is amended—

16 (1) by repealing subsection (e);

17 (2) by redesignating subsections (f), (g), (h),

18 and (i) as subsections (e), (f), (g), and (h), respec19 tively; and

20 (3) in subsection (d)(2), by striking ‘‘(f)’’ and

21 inserting ‘‘(e)’’; and

22 (4) in subsection (f)(2) (as redesignated by

23 paragraph (2)), by striking ‘‘(i)’’ and inserting

24 ‘‘(h)’’.
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1 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Sub2 section (h) of section 10992 of such Act (as redesignated

3 by subsection (d)(2)) (20 U.S.C. 8332) is amended by

4 striking ‘‘$4,000,000 for fiscal year 1995’’ and inserting

5 ‘‘$15,000,000 for fiscal year 2000’’.

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