II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1819

To amend title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

to provide grants for mentor teacher programs.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

OCTOBER 28, 1999

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

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

A BILL

To amend title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide grants for mentor teacher

programs.

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 ‘‘21st Century Mentor

5 Teacher Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. MENTOR TEACHER PROGRAMS.

7 Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education

8 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.) is amended—

9 (1) by redesignating part E as part F; and
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1 (2) by inserting after part D the following new

2 part:

3 ‘‘PART E—MENTOR TEACHER PROGRAM

4 ‘‘SEC. 2351. PURPOSES.

5 ‘‘The purposes of this part are to give local edu6 cational agencies the resources to establish mentor teacher

7 programs to enable experienced teachers to train novice

8 or beginner teachers.

9 ‘‘SEC. 2352. DEFINITIONS.

10 ‘‘In this part:

11 ‘‘(1) BOARD CERTIFIED.—The term ‘board cer12 tified’ means successful completion of all require13 ments to be certified by the National Board for Pro14 fessional Teaching Standards.

15 ‘‘(2) MENTOR TEACHER.—The term ‘mentor

16 teacher’ means a teacher who—

17 ‘‘(A) is permanently certified or licensed;

18 ‘‘(B) has demonstrated mastery of peda19 gogical and subject matter skills (such as by be20 coming board certified);

21 ‘‘(C) has provided evidence of superior

22 teaching abilities and interpersonal relationship

23 qualities; and

24 ‘‘(D) provides mentor services for not more

25 than 2 academic years out of 5 academic years.
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1 ‘‘(3) NOVICE TEACHER.—The term ‘novice

2 teacher’ means a teacher who has been teaching not

3 more than 3 years at a public elementary school or

4 secondary school.

5 ‘‘SEC. 2353. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

6 ‘‘(a) AUTHORITY.—

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized

8 to award grants on a competitive basis to local edu9 cational agencies to develop and implement mentor

10 teacher programs as described in subsection (d).

11 ‘‘(2) GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION.—To the

12 maximum extent practicable, the Secretary shall

13 award grants under paragraph (1) so that such

14 grants are distributed among the school districts

15 with the highest concentration of novice teachers.

16 ‘‘(b) DURATION.—A grant under subsection (a) shall

17 be awarded for a period of 5 years.

18 ‘‘(c) AMOUNT.—The amount of a grant awarded

19 under subsection (a), shall be determined based on—

20 ‘‘(1) the total amount appropriated for a fiscal

21 year under section 2358 and made available to carry

22 out this part; and

23 ‘‘(2) the extent of the concentration of novice

24 teachers in the school district involved.
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1 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZED ACTIVITIES.—The mentor teacher

2 programs described in subsection (a) shall provide training

3 to novice teachers on effective teaching techniques through

4 observation, instruction, coaching, and mentoring by expe5 rienced educators.

6 ‘‘SEC. 2354. APPLICATIONS.

7 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A local educational agency desir8 ing a grant under section 2353 shall submit an application

9 to the Secretary at such time, in such manner, and accom10 panied by such information as the Secretary may reason11 ably require.

12 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each application submitted pursu13 ant to subsection (a) shall include—

14 ‘‘(1) a statement describing the program activi15 ties for which amounts received under the grant will

16 be used;

17 ‘‘(2) a statement describing the goals and objec18 tives for the program activities described in para19 graph (1), including goals of—

20 ‘‘(A) enhancing overall student achieve21 ment;

22 ‘‘(B) increasing the number of perma23 nently certified and licensed teachers;
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1 ‘‘(C) increasing the number of provisionally

2 certified and licensed teachers seeking board

3 certification; and

4 ‘‘(D) maximizing the retention in the pro5 fession of teaching of certified and licensed

6 teachers; and

7 ‘‘(3) a statement describing the manner in

8 which the goals and objectives described in para9 graph (2) will be measured.

10 ‘‘(c) APPROVAL OF APPLICATION.—The Secretary

11 shall make a determination regarding an application sub12 mitted under subsection (a) based on a recommendation

13 of a peer review panel described in subsection (d), and

14 any other criteria that the Secretary determines to be ap15 propriate.

16 ‘‘(d) PEER REVIEW PANEL.—

17 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall es18 tablish a peer review panel to review and make rec19 ommendations as to whether applications submitted

20 pursuant to subsection (a) should be approved.

21 ‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATIONS.—In making a rec22 ommendation described in paragraph (1), the panel

23 shall give consideration to the same factors that the

24 Secretary is required to consider under section

25 2353(a)(2).
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1 ‘‘SEC. 2355. PAYMENTS.

2 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Grant payments shall be made

3 under this part on an annual basis.

4 ‘‘(b) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Each local edu5 cational agency that receives a grant under section 2353

6 shall use not more than 2 percent of the amount awarded

7 under the grant for administrative costs.

8 ‘‘(c) DENIAL OF GRANT.—If the Secretary deter9 mines that a local educational agency has failed to make

10 substantial progress in attaining the performance objec11 tives and goals described in section 2354(b)(2), such an

12 agency shall not be eligible for a grant payment under this

13 part in the next succeeding year.

14 ‘‘SEC. 2356. REPORTS.

15 ‘‘(a) REPORT BY THE SECRETARY.—Not later than

16 6 months after receipt of reports described in subsection

17 (b), the Secretary shall prepare and submit to the Com18 mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the

19 Senate and the Committee on Education and the Work20 force of the House of Representatives a report of program

21 activities funded under this part.

22 ‘‘(b) REPORT BY APPLICANT.—Not later than March

23 31, 2004, each local educational agency receiving a grant

24 under this part shall submit a report to the Secretary de25 scribing whether the program established under section
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1 2353 was effective in meeting the goals described in sub2 paragraphs (A) through (D) of section 2354(b)(2).

3 ‘‘SEC. 2357. MATCHING REQUIREMENT.

4 ‘‘The Secretary may not award a grant to a local edu5 cational agency under section 2353 unless the local edu6 cational agency agrees that, with respect to costs to be

7 incurred by the agency in carrying out activities for which

8 the grant was awarded, the agency shall provide (directly

9 or through donations from public or private entities) in

10 non-Federal contributions an amount equal to 25 percent

11 of the amount of the grant awarded to the agency.

12 ‘‘SEC. 2358. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

13 ‘‘There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out

14 this part $50,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2000

15 through 2004.’’.

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