I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4973 

To authorize the Project GRAD program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 22, 2004 

Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York (for herself, Ms. PRYCE of Ohio, Mr. GREEN

of Texas, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. FATTAH, and Mr. BERMAN) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the 

Workforce 

A BILL 

To authorize the Project GRAD program, and for other 

purposes. 

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 ‘‘Graduation Really 

5 Achieves Dreams Act’’ or the ‘‘GRAD Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) The national high school graduation rate is 

9 only 70 percent, and in urban districts that percent10 age drops further to only 50 percent. 
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1 (2) The national graduation rate for the class 

2 of 2001 was only 51 percent for African Americans 

3 and 52 percent for Latino students. 

4 (3) Each school day, approximately 3,000 sec5 ondary school students drop out of school. 

6 (4) Six million secondary students who make up 

7 the lowest 25 percent in terms of achievement scores 

8 are 3.5 times more likely to drop out than students 

9 in the next highest quarter of academic achievement, 

10 and are 20 times more likely to drop out than high 

11 achieving students. 

12 (5) Approximately 25 percent of secondary 

13 school students are reading at ‘‘below basic’’ levels. 

14 The problem is even more severe for poor students 

15 of color. The average minority or low-income ninth 

16 grader performs at only the fifth or sixth grade level 

17 in reading. 

18 (6) Low graduation rates are evidence that, in 

19 the earlier grades, schools are not meeting the fun20 damental achievement needs of low-income students. 

21 (7) Even those students who do graduate from 

22 secondary schools and go on to college are struggling 

23 because they lack the basic skills to succeed. Ap24 proximately 40 percent of all 4-year college students 

25 take a remedial course and 63 percent of all commu-
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1 nity college students are assigned to at least one re2 medial course. 

3 (8) A small percentage of low-income students 

4 who manage to enter college are able to complete a 

5 degree. Of students from families in the bottom 20 

6 percent in terms of income who enter college, only 

7 27 percent go on to complete a two- or four-year col8 lege degree within eight years. 

9 (9) Graduation rates impact early drop-out 

10 rates in the military. The attrition rates of both non11 high school graduates and GED recipients are 8 per12 centage points higher than the rates of graduates. 

13 As a result, the Armed Services no longer accepts 

14 high school drop-outs and put less value on alter15 native certificates. 

16 (10) Students who fail to graduate from high 

17 school are more likely to engage in criminal activity 

18 than students who graduate. A one percent increase 

19 in high school graduation rates would save approxi20 mately $1.4 billion in costs associated with incarcer21 ation, or about $2,100 for each male high school 

22 graduate. 

23 (11) In today’s workplace, nearly 8 in 10 adults 

24 with bachelors degrees are employed, but for those 

25 who completed high school only, the figure falls to 
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1 about 6 in 10. And for students who dropped out, 

2 the figure drops further to 4 in 10. 

3 (12) Employment projections indicate that jobs 

4 requiring only a high school degree will grow by just 

5 9 percent by the year 2008, while those requiring a 

6 bachelor’s degree will grow by 25 percent and those 

7 requiring an associate’s degree will grow by 31 per8 cent. 

9 (13) Personalization of the school environment 

10 has been proven to increase success rates for low11 performing secondary school students. Nearly 50 

12 percent of middle school youth and 40 percent of 

13 high school youth report feelings of disengagement 

14 from school. Rates are even higher for teens and mi15 norities in urban schools. These feelings result in 

16 failure to work hard, to seek assistance, or to take 

17 appropriate courses. 

18 (14) Effective research-based education pro19 grams that improve high school graduation rates are 

20 comprehensive in nature and include interventions 

21 that begin in kindergarten and span all the grades 

22 through 12th. 

23 SEC. 3. PROJECT GRAD. 

24 (a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the program author25 ized under this Act is— 
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1 (1) to provide support and assistance to pro2 grams implementing integrated education reform 

3 services to improve high school graduation and col4 lege going rates for disadvantaged students; and 

5 (2) to promote the establishment of new pro6 grams to implement such integrated education re7 form services. 

8 (b) GRANT AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary is author9 ized to award a grant to Project GRAD USA, a nonprofit 

10 educational organization that has as its primary purpose 

11 the improvement of high school graduation and college 

12 going rates for disadvantaged students (hereinafter in this 

13 section referred to as the ‘‘grantee’’), to provide support 

14 and technical assistance to existing programs imple15 menting the set of integrated education reform services 

16 described in subsection (d)(2) and to promote the expan17 sion of such programs. 

18 (c) REQUIREMENTS OF GRANT AGREEMENT.—The 

19 Secretary shall enter into an agreement with the grantee 

20 that requires that— 

21 (1) the grantee will enter into subcontracts with 

22 nonprofit educational organizations (hereinafter in 

23 this section referred to as ‘‘subgrantees’’) under 

24 which the subgrantees will agree to establish, oper-
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1 ate, and provide the non-Federal share of the cost 

2 of implementing Project GRAD programs; 

3 (2) the grantee will provide such technical as4 sistance to the subgrantees as may be necessary to 

5 carry out the provisions of this section; 

6 (3) funds made available under the grant can 

7 be used to pay the Federal share of the cost of es8 tablishing and operating programs as provided in 

9 paragraph (1) and costs associated with the provi10 sion of technical assistance as provided in paragraph 

11 (2); and 

12 (4) the grantee will select only subgrantees that 

13 serve a substantial number or percentage of low-in14 come students. 

15 (d) SUPPORTED PROGRAMS.— 

16 (1) DESIGNATION; FEEDER PATTERNS.—The 

17 programs supported with funds available under this 

18 section shall be known as ‘‘Project GRAD pro19 grams’’. Such programs shall, with the agreement of 

20 the grantee, identify one or more groups of public 

21 schools at which services will be provided through es22 tablishing a ‘‘feeder pattern’’ through which elemen23 tary and secondary schools channel students having 

24 participated in Project GRAD services into an iden25 tified high school. 
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1 (2) INTEGRATED EDUCATION REFORM SERV2 ICES.—The services provided through project GRAD 

3 programs shall include— 

4 (A) research-based programs in reading, 

5 mathematics, and classroom management; 

6 (B) campus-based social services programs 

7 including a systematic approach to increase 

8 family and community involvement in the 

9 schools served; 

10 (C) a college access program, which in11 cludes the provision of a college scholarship for 

12 students that meet established criteria, proven 

13 approaches to increasing student and family 

14 college awareness, and assistance for those stu15 dents in applying to college for financial aid; 

16 and 

17 (D) such other services identified by the 

18 grantee as necessary to increase high school 

19 graduation and college going rates. 

20 (e) USE OF FUNDS.—Not less than 75 percent of the 

21 funds received by the grantee under this section shall be 

22 used to fund awards to subgrantees to carry out the re23 quirements of subsection (d)(1). The balance of such 

24 funds shall be used by grantee to carry out the require25 ments of subsection (d)(2), as well as other such activities 
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1 to promote greater public awareness of integrated edu2 cation reform services to improve high school graduation 

3 and college going rates for disadvantaged students as de4 scribed in subsection (d)(2). 

5 (f) FEDERAL SHARE.— 

6 (1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of subsection 

7 (c), the term ‘‘Federal share’’ means, with respect to 

8 the costs of Project GRAD programs authorized in 

9 subsection (c), subgrants provided by the grantee 

10 averaging $200 per pupil, adjusted to take into con11 sideration the resources available to the school at 

12 which the subgrantee will implement the program, 

13 and the need for Project GRAD USA services to im14 prove student outcomes. 

15 (2) EXCEPTION.—Nothing in this subsection 

16 shall preclude the awarding of subgrants reflecting 

17 a per student cost of more than $200 if the grantee 

18 determines that additional resources were not avail19 able consistent with the requirements placed on the 

20 grantee in subsection (c)(4). 

21 (3) MORE MAY BE REQUIRED.—If funds or re22 sources are available to a subgrantee, the grantee 

23 may elect to award the subgrantee less than the 

24 Federal share of the cost associated with the pro25 gram. 
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1 (g) EVALUATION.— 

2 (1) EVALUATION BY THE SECRETARY.—The 

3 Secretary shall select an independent entity to evalu4 ate every 3 years the performance of students who 

5 participate in a program under this section. The 

6 evaluation shall be contracted using the strongest 

7 possible research design for determining the effec8 tiveness of programs funded under this section. The 

9 evaluation shall include a comparison of reading and 

10 mathematics achievement and, where applicable, 

11 high school graduation, college going, and college 

12 completion rates of students who participate in the 

13 programs funded under this section with those indi14 cators for students of similar backgrounds who do 

15 not participate in such programs. 

16 (2) EVALUATION BY GRANTEE AND SUB17 GRANTEES.—The grantee shall require each sub18 grantee to prepare an in-depth report of the results 

19 of the programs supported with funds, and the use 

20 of funds, made available under this section. Such re21 view shall include data on the reading and math 

22 achievement of students involved in the programs 

23 and statistics on high school graduation, college 

24 going, and college completion rates, and such finan25 cial reporting as deemed relevant to review the effec-
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1 tiveness and efficiency of the program. The report 

2 shall be in a form and include such content as shall 

3 be determined by the grantee in consultation with 

4 the Secretary or the entity selected by the Secretary 

5 to evaluate the Project GRAD program. 

6 (3) AVAILABILITY OF EVALUATIONS.—Copies of 

7 any evaluation or report prepared pursuant to this 

8 section shall be available to the Secretary and the 

9 Chairman and ranking member of the Committee on 

10 Education and the Workforce of the House of Rep11 resentatives and the Committee on Health, Edu12 cation, Labor and Pensions of the Senate. 

13 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

14 are authorized to be appropriated to make grants under 

15 this section $27,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and such 

16 sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding 

17 fiscal years. 

18 (i) LOW-INCOME STUDENT.—For purposes of this 

19 section, the term ‘‘low-income student’’ means a student 

20 who is determined by a local educational agency to be from 

21 a low-income family using the measures described in sec22 tion 1113(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education 

23 Act of 1965. 

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