nity college students are assigned to at least 1 reme-
dial course. 
(11) 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 2- or 4-year college 
degree within 8 years. 
(12) Graduation rates impact early drop-out 
rates in the military. The attrition rates in the mili-
tary of both individuals who are not secondary 
school graduates and GED recipients are 8 percent-
age points higher than the attrition rate of sec-
ondary school graduates. As a result, the Armed 
Services no longer accepts secondary school dropouts 
and puts less value on alternative certificates. 
(13) Students who fail to graduate from sec-
ondary school are more likely to engage in criminal 
activity than students who graduate. A 1-percent in-
crease in secondary school graduation rates would 
save approximately $1,400,000,000 in costs associ-
ated with incarceration, or about $2,100 for each 
male secondary school graduate. 
(14) In today’s workplace, nearly 8 in 10 adults 
with baccalaureate degrees are employed, but for 
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those who completed secondary school only, the 
number falls to about 6 in 10. For students who 
dropped out of secondary school, the number drops 
further to 4 in 10. 
(15) Employment projections indicate that jobs 
requiring only a secondary school degree will grow 
by just 9 percent by the year 2008, while those jobs 
requiring a bachelor’s degree will grow by 25 percent 
and those jobs requiring an associate’s degree will 
grow by 31 percent. 
(16) Increasing minority students’ enrollment 
in college to the same proportion as white students 
would generate an additional $231 billion in GDP 
and at least $80 million in tax revenues. 
(17) 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 
secondary school youth report feelings of disengage-
ment from school. Rates are even higher for teens 
and minorities in urban schools. These feelings re-
sult in failure to work hard, to seek assistance, or 
to take appropriate courses. 
(18) Effective research-based education pro-
grams that improve secondary school graduation 
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rates are comprehensive in nature and include inter-
ventions that begin in kindergarten or earlier and 
span all the grades through grade 12. 
SEC. 3. PROJECT GRAD. 
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to provide support and assistance to pro-
grams implementing integrated education reform 
services in order to improve secondary school grad-
uation and college attendance and completion 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 (referred 
to in this Act as the ‘‘grantee’’), a nonprofit educational 
organization that has as its primary purpose the improve-
ment of secondary school graduation and college attend-
ance and completion rates for disadvantaged students, to 
implement and sustain the integrated education reform 
services described in subsection (d)(3) at existing Project 
GRAD program sites and to promote the expansion of 
such programs to new sites. 
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(c) REQUIREMENTS OF GRANT AGREEMENT.—The 
Secretary shall enter into an agreement with the grantee 
that requires that the grantee shall— 
(1) enter into subcontracts with nonprofit edu-
cational organizations that serve a substantial num-
ber or percentage of low-income students (referred 
to in this Act as ‘‘subcontractors’’), under which the 
subcontractors agree to implement the programs de-
scribed in subsection (d) and provide matching funds 
for such programs; 
(2) directly carry out— 
(A) activities to implement and sustain the 
literacy, mathematics, classroom management, 
social service, and college access programs fur-
ther described in subsection (d)(3); 
(B) activities to build the organizational 
and management capacity of the subcontractors 
to effectively implement and sustain the pro-
grams; 
(C) activities for the purpose of improving 
and expanding the programs, including but not 
limited to activities to further articulate a pro-
gram for one or more grade levels and across 
grade levels, to tailor a program for a particular 
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target audience, and provide tighter integration 
across programs; 
(D) activities for the purpose of imple-
menting new Project GRAD program sites; 
(E) activities for the purpose of promoting 
greater public awareness of integrated edu-
cation reform services to improve secondary 
school graduation and college attendance rates 
for disadvantaged students; and 
(F) other activities directly related to im-
proving secondary school graduation and college 
attendance and completion rates for disadvan-
taged students; and 
(3) use grant funds available under this act to 
pay— 
(A) the amount determined under sub-
section (f)(1); and 
(B) costs associated with carrying out the 
activities and providing the services, as provided 
in paragraph (2) of this subsection. 
(d) SUPPORTED PROGRAMS.— 
(1) DESIGNATION.—The subcontractor pro-
grams referred to in subsection (c)(1) shall be 
known as ‘‘Project GRAD programs’’. 
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