I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1456
To improve the National Writing Project.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL 15, 1999
Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California (for himself, Mr. WICKER, Ms. PELOSI,
Mr. UPTON, Ms. WOOLSEY, and Mr. KINGSTON) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Work-
force
A BILL
To improve the National Writing Project.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIONAL WRITING
PROJECT.
(a) FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.—Section 10991 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 8331) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘SEC. 10991. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
‘‘(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
‘‘(1) the United States faces a continuing crisis
in writing in schools and in the workplace;
‘‘(2) the writing problem has been magnified by
the rapidly changing student population, the growing
number of at-risk students due to limited English
proficiency, the shortage of adequately trained
teachers, and the specialized knowledge required of
teachers to teach students with special needs who
are now part of mainstream classrooms;
‘‘(3) nationwide reports from universities and
colleges show that entering students are unable to
meet the demands of college level writing, almost all
2-year institutions of higher education offer remedial
writing courses, and three-quarters of public 4-year
institutions of higher education and half of all pri-
vate 4-year institutions of higher education must
provide remedial courses in writing;
‘‘(4) American businesses and corporations are
concerned about the limited writing skills of both
entry-level workers and executives whose promotions
are denied due to inadequate writing abilities;
‘‘(5) writing is fundamental to learning, includ-
ing learning to read, yet writing has been neglected
historically in schools and in teacher training institu-
tions;
‘‘(6) writing is a central feature in State and
school district education standards in all disciplines;
‘‘(7) since 1973, the only national program to
address the writing problem in the Nation’s schools
has been the National Writing Project, a network of
collaborative university-school programs the goals of
which are to improve student achievement in writing
and student learning through improving the teaching
and uses of writing at all grade levels and in all dis-
ciplines;
‘‘(8) the National Writing Project is a nation-
ally recognized and honored nonprofit organization
that improves the quality of teaching and teachers
through developing teacher leaders who teach other
teachers in summer and school year programs;
‘‘(9) evaluations of the National Writing
Project document the positive impact the project has
had on improving the teaching of writing, student
performance in writing, and student learning;
‘‘(10) the National Writing Project has become
a model for programs to improve teaching in such
other fields as mathematics, science, history, reading
and literature, performing arts and foreign lan-
guages;
‘‘(11) each year over 150,000 participants ben-
efit from National Writing Project programs in 1 of
156 United States sites located in 46 States and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and
‘‘(12) the National Writing Project is a cost-ef-
fective program and leverages over 6 dollars for
every 1 Federal dollar.
‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this part—
‘‘(1) to support and promote the expansion of
the National Writing Project network of sites so
that teachers in every region of the United States
will have access to a National Writing Project pro-
gram;
‘‘(2) to ensure the consistent high quality of the
sites through ongoing review, evaluation and tech-
nical assistance;
‘‘(3) to support and promote the establishment
of programs to disseminate effective practices and
research findings about the teaching of writing; and
‘‘(4) to coordinate activities assisted under this
part with activities assisted under this Act.’’.
(b) AUTHORIZATION.—Subsection (a) of section
10992 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332(a)) is amended to
read as follows:
‘‘(a) AUTHORIZATION.—The Secretary is authorized
to make a grant to the National Writing Project (hereafter
in this section referred to as the ‘grantee’), a nonprofit
educational organization that has as its primary purpose
the improvement of the quality of student writing and
learning, to improve the teaching and uses of writing to
learn in our Nation’s classrooms.’’.
(c) FEDERAL SHARE.—Paragraph (3) of section
10992(d) of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332(d)) is amended to
read as follows:
‘‘(3) MAXIMUM.—The Federal share of the
costs of teacher training programs conducted pursu-
ant to subsection (a) may not exceed $100,000 for
any one contractor, or $200,000 for a statewide pro-
gram administered by any one contractor in at least
five sites throughout the State.
(d) REPEAL OF CLASSROOM TEACHER GRANTS.—
Section 10992 of such Act (20 U.S.C. 8332) is amended—
(1) by repealing subsection (e);
(2) by redesignating subsections (f), (g), (h),
and (i) as subsections (e), (f), (g), and (h), respec-
tively; and
(3) in subsection (d)(2), by striking ‘‘(f)’’ and
inserting ‘‘(e)’’; and
(4) in subsection (f)(2) (as redesignated by
paragraph (2)), by striking ‘‘(i)’’ and inserting
‘‘(h)’’.
(e) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.—Sub-
section (h) of section 10992 of such Act (as redesignated
by subsection (d)(2)) (20 U.S.C. 8332) is amended by
striking ‘‘$4,000,000 for fiscal year 1995’’ and inserting
‘‘$15,000,000 for fiscal year 2000’’.
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