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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Graduation Really 
Achieves Dreams Act’’ or the ‘‘GRAD Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The national high school graduation rate is 
only 70 percent, and in urban districts that percent-
age drops further to only 50 percent.
(2) The national graduation rate for the class 
of 2001 was only 51 percent for African Americans 
and 52 percent for Latino students. 
(3) Each school day, approximately 3,000 sec-
ondary school students drop out of school. 
(4) Six million secondary students who make up 
the lowest 25 percent in terms of achievement scores 
are 3.5 times more likely to drop out than students 
in the next highest quarter of academic achievement, 
and are 20 times more likely to drop out than high 
achieving students. 
(5) Approximately 25 percent of secondary 
school students are reading at ‘‘below basic’’ levels. 
The problem is even more severe for poor students 
of color. The average minority or low-income ninth 
grader performs at only the fifth or sixth grade level 
in reading. 
(6) Low graduation rates are evidence that, in 
the earlier grades, schools are not meeting the fun-
damental achievement needs of low-income students. 
(7) Even those students who do graduate from 
secondary schools and go on to college are struggling 
because they lack the basic skills to succeed. Ap-
proximately 40 percent of all 4-year college students 
take a remedial course and 63 percent of all commu-
nity college students are assigned to at least one re-
medial course. 
(8) A small percentage of low-income students 
who manage to enter college are able to complete a 
degree. Of students from families in the bottom 20 
percent in terms of income who enter college, only 
27 percent go on to complete a two- or four-year col-
lege degree within eight years. 
(9) Graduation rates impact early drop-out 
rates in the military. The attrition rates of both non- 
high school graduates and GED recipients are 8 per-
centage points higher than the rates of graduates. 
As a result, the Armed Services no longer accepts 
high school drop-outs and put less value on alter-
native certificates. 
(10) Students who fail to graduate from high 
school are more likely to engage in criminal activity 
than students who graduate. A one percent increase 
in high school graduation rates would save approxi-
mately $1.4 billion in costs associated with incarcer-
ation, or about $2,100 for each male high school 
graduate. 
(11) In today’s workplace, nearly 8 in 10 adults 
with bachelors degrees are employed, but for those 
who completed high school only, the figure falls to
about 6 in 10. And for students who dropped out, 
the figure drops further to 4 in 10. 
(12) Employment projections indicate that jobs 
requiring only a high school degree will grow by just 
9 percent by the year 2008, while those requiring a 
bachelor’s degree will grow by 25 percent and those 
requiring an associate’s degree will grow by 31 per-
cent. 
(13) Personalization of the school environment 
has been proven to increase success rates for low- 
performing secondary school students. Nearly 50 
percent of middle school youth and 40 percent of 
high school youth report feelings of disengagement 
from school. Rates are even higher for teens and mi-
norities in urban schools. These feelings result in 
failure to work hard, to seek assistance, or to take 
appropriate courses. 
(14) Effective research-based education pro-
grams that improve high school graduation rates are 
comprehensive in nature and include interventions 
that begin in kindergarten and span all the grades 
through 12th. 
SEC. 3. PROJECT GRAD. 
(a) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the program author-
ized under this Act is—
(1) to provide support and assistance to pro-
grams implementing integrated education reform 
services to improve high school graduation and col-
lege going rates for disadvantaged students; and 
(2) to promote the establishment of new pro-
grams to implement such integrated education re-
form services. 
(b) GRANT AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary is author-
ized to award a grant to Project GRAD USA, a nonprofit 
educational organization that has as its primary purpose 
the improvement of high school graduation and college 
going rates for disadvantaged students (hereinafter in this 
section referred to as the ‘‘grantee’’), to provide support 
and technical assistance to existing programs imple-
menting the set of integrated education reform services 
described in subsection (d)(2) and to promote the expan-
sion of such programs. 
(c) REQUIREMENTS OF GRANT AGREEMENT.—The 
Secretary shall enter into an agreement with the grantee 
that requires that— 
(1) the grantee will enter into subcontracts with 
nonprofit educational organizations (hereinafter in 
this section referred to as ‘‘subgrantees’’) under 
which the subgrantees will agree to establish, oper-
ate, and provide the non-Federal share of the cost 
of implementing Project GRAD programs; 
(2) the grantee will provide such technical as-
sistance to the subgrantees as may be necessary to 
carry out the provisions of this section; 
(3) funds made available under the grant can 
be used to pay the Federal share of the cost of es-
tablishing and operating programs as provided in 
paragraph (1) and costs associated with the provi-
sion of technical assistance as provided in paragraph 
(2); and 
(4) the grantee will select only subgrantees that 
serve a substantial number or percentage of low-in-
come students. 
(d) SUPPORTED PROGRAMS.— 
(1) DESIGNATION; FEEDER
PATTERNS.—The 
programs supported with funds available under this 
section shall be known as ‘‘Project GRAD pro-
grams’’. Such programs shall, with the agreement of 
the grantee, identify one or more groups of public 
schools at which services will be provided through es-
tablishing a ‘‘feeder pattern’’ through which elemen-
tary and secondary schools channel students having 
participated in Project GRAD services into an iden-
tified high school.
(2) INTEGRATED
EDUCATION
REFORM
SERV-
ICES.—The services provided through project GRAD 
programs shall include— 
(A) research-based programs in reading, 
mathematics, and classroom management; 
(B) campus-based social services programs 
including a systematic approach to increase 
family and community involvement in the 
schools served; 
(C) a college access program, which in-
cludes the provision of a college scholarship for 
students that meet established criteria, proven 
approaches to increasing student and family 
college awareness, and assistance for those stu-
dents in applying to college for financial aid; 
and 
(D) such other services identified by the 
grantee as necessary to increase high school 
graduation and college going rates. 
(e) USE OF FUNDS.—Not less than 75 percent of the 
funds received by the grantee under this section shall be 
used to fund awards to subgrantees to carry out the re-
quirements of subsection (d)(1). The balance of such 
funds shall be used by grantee to carry out the require-
ments of subsection (d)(2), as well as other such activities
to promote greater public awareness of integrated edu-
cation reform services to improve high school graduation 
and college going rates for disadvantaged students as de-
scribed in subsection (d)(2). 
(f) FEDERAL SHARE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of subsection 
(c), the term ‘‘Federal share’’ means, with respect to 
the costs of Project GRAD programs authorized in 
subsection (c), subgrants provided by the grantee 
averaging $200 per pupil, adjusted to take into con-
sideration the resources available to the school at 
which the subgrantee will implement the program, 
and the need for Project GRAD USA services to im-
prove student outcomes. 
(2) EXCEPTION.—Nothing in this subsection 
shall preclude the awarding of subgrants reflecting 
a per student cost of more than $200 if the grantee 
determines that additional resources were not avail-
able consistent with the requirements placed on the 
grantee in subsection (c)(4). 
(3) MORE MAY BE REQUIRED.—If funds or re-
sources are available to a subgrantee, the grantee 
may elect to award the subgrantee less than the 
Federal share of the cost associated with the pro-
gram.
(g) EVALUATION.— 
(1) EVALUATION
BY
THE
SECRETARY.—The 
Secretary shall select an independent entity to evalu-
ate every 3 years the performance of students who 
participate in a program under this section. The 
evaluation shall be contracted using the strongest 
possible research design for determining the effec-
tiveness of programs funded under this section. The 
evaluation shall include a comparison of reading and 
mathematics achievement and, where applicable, 
high school graduation, college going, and college 
completion rates of students who participate in the 
programs funded under this section with those indi-
cators for students of similar backgrounds who do 
not participate in such programs. 
(2) EVALUATION
BY
GRANTEE
AND
SUB-
GRANTEES.—The grantee shall require each sub-
grantee to prepare an in-depth report of the results 
of the programs supported with funds, and the use 
of funds, made available under this section. Such re-
view shall include data on the reading and math 
achievement of students involved in the programs 
and statistics on high school graduation, college 
going, and college completion rates, and such finan-
cial reporting as deemed relevant to review the effec-
tiveness and efficiency of the program. The report 
shall be in a form and include such content as shall 
be determined by the grantee in consultation with 
the Secretary or the entity selected by the Secretary 
to evaluate the Project GRAD program. 
(3) AVAILABILITY OF EVALUATIONS.—Copies of 
any evaluation or report prepared pursuant to this 
section shall be available to the Secretary and the 
Chairman and ranking member of the Committee on 
Education and the Workforce of the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor and Pensions of the Senate. 
(h) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to make grants under 
this section $27,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and such 
sums as may be necessary for each of the 5 succeeding 
fiscal years. 
(i) LOW-INCOME STUDENT.—For purposes of this 
section, 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 sec-
tion 1113(c) of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act of 1965. 
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