TALENT Act

Bill: 113-s-512
Sponsor: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Introduced: 2013-03-11 in the Senate
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Academic performance and assessments
Census and government statistics
Education of the disadvantaged
Education programs funding
Elementary and secondary education
Foreign language and bilingual programs
Government information and archives
Higher education
Research and development
Rural conditions and development
Science and engineering education
Teaching, teachers, curricula

Summary:
action_date: 2013-03-11
text: 
To Aid Gifted and High-Ability Learners by Empowering the Nation's Teachers Act or the TALENT Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require state assessments of student proficiency to measure individual academic achievement, including above grade level achievement.
 
Requires states to: (1) recognize local educational agencies (LEAs) that significantly increase the proportion of their students, overall and in specified student subgroups, that score at or above the advanced level of achievement on such assessments; (2) assist their LEAs and schools in providing additional educational assistance to advanced, gifted, and talented students; and (3) report annually a comparison of the performance of students between different LEAs at each level of achievement, disaggregated by specified student subgroups.
 
Requires LEAs receiving school improvement funds to identify gifted and talented students and support their learning needs.
 
Requires LEAs and partnerships that receive funding under the Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund program to train educators to identify gifted and talented students and implement instructional practices that support their education.
 
Authorizes LEAs to use funding under: (1) the small rural school achievement program to support gifted and talented students, and (2) the rural and low-income school program to train teachers to meet the unique learning needs of gifted and talented students.
 
Directs the Secretary, through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to: (1) continue research and development activities regarding the education of gifted and talented students; (2) support a National Research and Dissemination Center on the Gifted and Talented; (3) administer demonstration grants that enhance the ability of educators to support gifted and talented students; and (4) ensure that statistical data regarding the education of gifted and talented children is collected, reported, analyzed, and disseminated.
 
Amends the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 to require the committee established to coordinate federal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education programs to encourage participating agencies to develop and implement programs for advanced students.
 
Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 to require the Secretary of Energy to use academic achievement as the basis for student participation in the Department of Energy's (DOE's) mathematics and science education programs for elementary and secondary school students and its prefreshman science, mathematics, and technology enrichment program for middle school students.
 
Amends the America COMPETES Act to give Advanced Placement (AP) program and International Baccalaureate (IB) program grant priority to eligible entities that are part of a statewide strategy to increase the availability of AP or IB mathematics, science, and critical foreign language courses by making such courses available earlier than usual to students who are prepared for the work.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2013-03-11
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2013-03-11
text: Introduced in Senate