II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1827

To provide funds to assist high-poverty school districts meet their teaching

needs.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 28, 1999

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

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

A BILL

To provide funds to assist high-poverty school districts meet

their teaching needs.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Transition to Teaching

5 Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds as follows:

8 (1) School districts will need to hire more than

9 2,000,000 teachers in the next decade. The need for

10 teachers in the areas of mathematics, science, for-
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1 eign languages, special education, and bilingual edu2 cation, and for those able to teach in high-poverty

3 school districts will be particularly high. To meet

4 this need, talented Americans of all ages should be

5 recruited to become successful, qualified teachers.

6 (2) Nearly 28 percent of teachers of academic

7 subjects have neither an undergraduate major nor

8 minor in their main assignment fields. This problem

9 is more acute in high-poverty schools, where the out10 of-field percentage is 39 percent.

11 (3) The Third International Math and Science

12 Study (TIMSS) ranked United States high school

13 seniors last among 16 countries in physics and next

14 to last in mathematics. It is also evident, mainly

15 from the TIMSS data, that based on academic

16 scores, a stronger emphasis needs to be placed on

17 the academic preparation of our children in mathe18 matics and science.

19 (4) One-fourth of high-poverty schools find it

20 very difficult to fill bilingual teaching positions, and

21 nearly half of public school teachers have students in

22 their classrooms for whom English is a second lan23 guage.

24 (5) Many career-changing professionals with

25 strong content-area skills are interested in a teach-
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1 ing career, but need assistance in getting the appro2 priate pedagogical training and classroom experi3 ence.

4 (6) The Troops to Teachers model has been

5 highly successful in linking high-quality teachers to

6 teach in high-poverty districts.

7 SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

8 The purpose of this Act is to address the need of

9 high-poverty school districts for highly qualified teachers

10 in particular subject areas, such as mathematics, science,

11 foreign languages, bilingual education, and special edu12 cation, needed by those school districts, by—

13 (1) continuing and enhancing the Troops to

14 Teachers model for recruiting and supporting the

15 placement of such teachers; and

16 (2) recruiting, preparing, placing, and sup17 porting career-changing professionals who have

18 knowledge and experience that will help them be19 come such teachers.

20 SEC. 4. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

21 (a) AUTHORITY.—Subject to subsection (b), the Sec22 retary is authorized to use funds appropriated under sub23 section (c) for each fiscal year to award grants, contracts,

24 or cooperative agreements to institutions of higher edu-
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1 cation and public and private nonprofit agencies or organi2 zations to carry out programs authorized by this Act.

3 (b) TROOPS TO TEACHERS.—

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Before making awards

5 under subsection (a) for any fiscal year, the Sec6 retary shall first—

7 (A) consult with the Secretary of Defense

8 and the Secretary of Transportation regarding

9 the appropriate amount of funding needed to

10 continue and enhance the Troops to Teachers

11 program; and

12 (B) upon agreement, transfer that amount

13 to the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional

14 Education Support (DANTES) to carry out the

15 Troops to Teachers program.

16 (2) CONTINUATION OF PROGRAM.—The Sec17 retary may enter into a written agreement with the

18 Departments of Defense and Transportation, or take

19 such other steps as the Secretary determines are ap20 propriate to ensure effective continuation of the

21 Troops to Teachers program.

22 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the

23 purpose of carrying out this Act, there are authorized to

24 be appropriated $18,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2000

25 through 2005.
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1 SEC. 5. APPLICATION.

2 Each applicant that desires an award under section

3 4(a) shall submit an application to the Secretary con4 taining such information as the Secretary requires,

5 including—

6 (1) a description of the target group of career7 changing professionals upon which the applicant will

8 focus in carrying out its program under this Act, in9 cluding a description of the characteristics of that

10 target group that shows how the knowledge and ex11 perience of its members are relevant to meeting the

12 purpose of this Act;

13 (2) a description of how the applicant will iden14 tify and recruit program participants;

15 (3) a description of the training that program

16 participants will receive and how that training will

17 relate to their certification as teachers;

18 (4) a description of how the applicant will en19 sure that program participants are placed and teach

20 in high-poverty local educational agencies;

21 (5) a description of the teacher induction serv22 ices (which may be provided through existing induc23 tion programs) the program participants will receive

24 throughout at least their first year of teaching;

25 (6) a description of how the applicant will col26 laborate, as needed, with other institutions, agencies,
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1 or organizations to recruit, train, place, and support

2 program participants under this Act, including evi3 dence of the commitment of those institutions, agen4 cies, or organizations to the applicant’s program;

5 (7) a description of how the applicant will

6 evaluate the progress and effectiveness of its pro7 gram, including—

8 (A) the program’s goals and objectives;

9 (B) the performance indicators the appli10 cant will use to measure the program’s

11 progress; and

12 (C) the outcome measures that will be used

13 to determine the program’s effectiveness; and

14 (8) an assurance that the applicant will provide

15 to the Secretary such information as the Secretary

16 determines necessary to determine the overall effec17 tiveness of programs under this Act.

18 SEC. 6. USES OF FUNDS AND PERIOD OF SERVICE.

19 (a) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.—Funds under this Act

20 may be used for—

21 (1) recruiting program participants, including

22 informing them of opportunities under the program

23 and putting them in contact with other institutions,

24 agencies, or organizations that would train, place,

25 and support them;
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1 (2) training stipends and other financial incen2 tives for program participants, not to exceed $5,000

3 per participant;

4 (3) assisting institutions of higher education or

5 other providers of teacher training to tailor their

6 training to meet the particular needs of professionals

7 who are changing their careers to teaching;

8 (4) placement activities, including identifying

9 high-poverty local educational agencies with a need

10 for the particular skills and characteristics of the

11 newly trained program participants and assisting

12 those participants to obtain employment in those

13 local educational agencies; and

14 (5) post-placement induction or support activi15 ties for program participants.

16 (b) PERIOD OF SERVICE.—A program participant in

17 a program under this Act who completes his or her train18 ing shall serve in a high-poverty local educational agency

19 for at least 3 years.

20 (c) REPAYMENT.—The Secretary shall establish such

21 requirements as the Secretary determines appropriate to

22 ensure that program participants who receive a training

23 stipend or other financial incentive under subsection

24 (a)(2), but fail to complete their service obligation under
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1 subsection (b), repay all or a portion of such stipend or

2 other incentive.

3 SEC. 7. EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION.

4 To the extent practicable, the Secretary shall make

5 awards under this Act that support programs in different

6 geographic regions of the Nation.

7 SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

8 In this Act:

9 (1) HIGH-POVERTY LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGEN10 CY.—The term ‘‘high-poverty local educational agen11 cy’’ means a local educational agency in which the

12 percentage of children, ages 5 through 17, from

13 families below the poverty level is 20 percent or

14 greater, or the number of such children exceeds

15 10,000.

16 (2) PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS.—The term ‘‘pro17 gram participants’’ means career-changing profes18 sionals who—

19 (A) hold at least a baccalaureate degree;

20 (B) demonstrate interest in, and commit21 ment to, becoming a teacher; and

22 (C) have knowledge and experience that

23 are relevant to teaching a high-need subject

24 area in a high-need local educational agency.

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