lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2014-11-13 00:00:00

Master Teacher Corps Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to award competitive matching grants to consortia of local educational agencies (LEAs), states, or LEAs and states, acting in partnership with institutions of higher education or nonprofit organizations to establish a Master Teacher Corps program.

Requires the grants to be used to:

 select exemplary elementary and secondary school teachers for membership in the program; provide master teachers with compensation that supplements their base salary; provide research-based professional development; coordinate master teachers' instructional leadership, mentorship, training, and coaching roles, including by hiring substitute teachers to fill-in for master teachers who are working with other teachers; facilitate efforts to involve master teachers in policy decisions at the LEA, state, and regional levels; defray the educational costs associated with master teachers fulfilling their responsibilities; track the program's effectiveness and impact; and support other activities that advance the program. Requires teachers selected as master teachers to: (1) have at least five years of full-time experience as elementary or secondary school teachers, and (2) have earned the highest rating on their state or local evaluations for the majority of their teaching years.

Requires master teachers to be selected based on their:

 ability to enhance student achievement and tailor instruction to individual student needs; ability to address adult learners in professional development; ability to successfully collaborate with teachers, school leaders, and staff; skill in promoting teacher reflection through formative assessment processes; strong interpersonal and oral and written communication skills; record of school leadership; participation in student extracurricular activities and professional and school outreach activities; record of teaching students not on grade level or not on track to graduate college and career-ready; and measurable ability, using various indicators. Requires grantees to ensure that not more than 20% of the teachers in their participating area are members of the Corps.

Provides for the participation of private teachers as master teachers, but makes them ineligible for compensation under the program.

Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to: (1) evaluate the Master Teacher Corps program; (2) identify successes, best practices, and areas for improvement; and (3) disseminate the evaluation's findings.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-02-12 00:00:00

Women and Minorities in STEM Booster Act of 2013 - Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), acting through the Human Resources Directorate and not less than one research directorate of the NSF, to award competitive grants to eligible entities to enable them to carry out the activities specified below in order to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Requires an eligible entity that receives a grant to use those grant funds to carry out the following activities designed to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields: (1) online workshops, (2) mentoring programs that partner STEM professionals with students, (3) internships for undergraduate and graduate students in STEM, and (4) conducting outreach programs providing elementary and secondary school students with opportunities to increase their exposure to STEM.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-02-14 00:00:00

After School for America's Children Act - Amends the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program under part B of title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). (21st Century Community Learning Centers provide students with before and after school programs to improve their academic performance.)

Requires the Centers to provide: (1) students with activities that are targeted to their academic needs and aligned with the instruction they receive during the school day, and (2) students' families with opportunities for active and meaningful engagement in their children's education.

Includes Indian tribes or organizations among the local public or private entities that are eligible for grants from states to establish the Centers.

Requires states to use at least 93% (currently 95%) of their allotment from the Secretary of Education to provide grants to those entities.

Allows states to use up to 5% (currently, 3%) of their allotment for certain state activities.

Requires states to: (1) award grants to local entities that serve students who primarily attend schools that are eligible for schoolwide programs under part A of title I of the ESEA, and (2) favor applicants that propose to serve students that have not achieved proficiency in accordance with state academic achievement standards.

Requires states to use a rigorous peer review process in reviewing grant applications.

Allows states to renew a grant under part B based on the grantee's performance during the original grant period.

Prohibits the Secretary or states from giving funding priority to applicants that propose to use the funds to extend the regular school day.

Includes among the activities grants may fund: (1) core academic subject education activities, including those that allow students to recover or attain credits; (2) literacy education programs; (3) programs that support a healthy, active lifestyle; (4) services for the disabled; (5) cultural programs; and (6) programs that build science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills and support innovative STEM teaching methods.

Reauthorizes the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program through FY2019.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-02-14 00:00:00

STEM Master Teacher Corps Act of 2013 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct the Secretary of Education to award competitive matching grants to consortia of local educational agencies (LEAs) or states, acting in partnership with institutions of higher education or nonprofit organizations to establish a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Master Teacher Corps program.

Requires grantees to: (1) select exemplary elementary and secondary school STEM teachers for membership in the STEM Master Teacher Corps; (2) provide those teachers with compensation that supplements their base salaries, with higher compensation going to those teaching at high-need public schools; (3) provide, and track the effectiveness of, research-based training for Corps members; (4) provide discretionary resources for Corps members at high-need schools to use; (5) help coordinate instructional leadership and mentoring roles for Corps members; and (6) facilitate efforts by Corps members to inform STEM education policy at the national, state, and local levels.

Gives grant priority to applicants that intend to include: (1) large numbers of teachers in the STEM Master Teacher Corps; and (2) rural schools, particularly high-need rural schools, in the area they serve.

Requires grantees to ensure that at least 75% of their STEM Master Teacher Corps are teachers at high-need schools.

Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to: (1) evaluate the STEM Master Teacher Corps program; (2) identify optimal strategies for designing and advancing such program; and (3) identify best practices for developing, supporting, and retaining STEM teachers based on lessons learned from the program.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-03-04 00:00:00

Professional Development for Educators Act of 2013 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to direct the Secretary of Education to allot grants to states and, through them, award or allot subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to provide professional development to educators.

Makes each state's allotment equivalent to its share of school improvement funds under part A of title I of the ESEA.

Requires states to use a portion of their allotment to:

 establish the criteria for quality professional development activities, which must include the requirement that those activities are regularly assessed on the basis of their impact on teacher effectiveness and student achievement; design and implement methods for evaluating quality professional development activities; make recommendations for improving those activities; design and maintain an electronic, searchable, statewide registry of quality professional development activities; hire regional professional development coordinators to work as liaisons between the state and LEAs regarding those activities; evaluate professional development activities; and submit annual reports to the Secretary regarding the progress they make under the grant program. Requires LEAs to use their subgrants to: (1) inform their states of quality professional development activities that are available for inclusion in the statewide registry; and (2) dedicate at least 25% of each subgrant to quality professional development activities that involve science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and career and technical education.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-03-05 00:00:00

Annual National Classified School Employee of the Year Award Act - Directs the Secretary of Education to award National Classified School Employee of the Year Awards to classified public school employees within certain occupational specialties who provide exemplary service to students in prekindergarten through higher education.

Requires the Secretary to choose an awardee each year, out of nominations received from each state, from one of the following occupational specialties: (1) paraprofessional services, (2) clerical and administrative services, (3) transportation services, (4) food and nutrition services, (5) custodial and maintenance services, (6) security services, (7) health and student services, (8) technical services, and (9) skilled trades.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-03-11 00:00:00

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.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-04-25 00:00:00

School Principal Recruitment and Training Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a principal recruitment and training grant program awarding renewable, matching grants to states, local educational agencies (LEAs), educational service agencies, nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, and partnerships of those entities to recruit, prepare, place, and support principals in eligible schools.

Defines "eligible schools" as high-need schools, persistently low-achieving schools, achievement gap schools, schools with middle grades that feed students to high schools with low graduation rates, and rural schools served by high-need LEAs.

Requires grantees to work with experts and stakeholders to develop, during the first year of a grant, a leadership training program for principals, mentors, and other school leaders that prepares and supports them in leading effective school reform efforts in persistently low-achieving schools.

Requires grantees to use the grants, after that first year, to: (1) implement their leadership training program; (2) ensure that their training program is informed, on an ongoing basis, by consultations with experts and stakeholders and by tracking the performance of program graduates; (3) select cohorts of trained or experienced principals to lead school reform efforts in persistently low-achieving schools; (4) support and encourage interaction among principals who have completed the training program; and (5) disseminate information to principals, mentors, and other school leaders engaging in reform efforts in persistently low-achieving schools.

Makes grant renewal decisions dependent on the Secretary of Education's evaluation of the extent to which the principals recruited, prepared, placed, or supported by the grantee have improved school-level student outcomes.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the activities funded by the grant program; and (2) identify, and disseminate research on, best practices to improve school leadership.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-04-25 00:00:00

STEM Education for the Global Economy Act of 2013 - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to replace the Mathematics and Science Partnerships program with a STEM Education program.

Directs the Secretary of Education to implement that program by allotting formula grants to states and, through them, awarding competitive subgrants to high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) or educational service agencies serving such LEAs to improve preschool and elementary and secondary school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Allots such grants to states pursuant to a formula that takes into account each state's share of elementary and secondary school students and each state's share of such students who are impoverished.

Directs the Secretary to use program appropriations that exceed a specified amount in a fiscal year to award STEM education grants to states on a competitive basis. Authorizes the Secretary to award capacity-building grants to states to help them qualify for competitive grants.

Requires subgrants to be used for activities that include: (1) recruiting, supporting, evaluating, and training STEM teachers; (2) developing and improving high-quality STEM curricula and instructional supports to improve student achievement in those subjects; and (3) integrating STEM instruction with instruction in reading, English language arts, or other academic subjects.

Authorizes states to require subgrantees to obtain a commitment from one or more outside partners to match, from nonfederal funds, a portion of the subgrant funds.

Directs the Secretary to award to partnerships between states or LEAs and outside entities experienced in improving the effectiveness or retention of STEM teachers competitive grants to establish and operate STEM master teacher corps programs. Requires the partnerships to: (1) select a group of highly-rated STEM teachers to serve as corps members in high-need schools; (2) provide corps members with instructional leadership responsibilities, research-based training, and a salary supplement; and (3) build a community of practice among corps members.

Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to establish performance metrics and use those metrics to evaluate this Act's programs and identify best practices to improve STEM instruction.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-04 00:00:00

Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2013 - Replaces part D (Enhancing Education Through Technology) of title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) with a new part D (Achievement Through Technology and Innovation).

Directs the Secretary of Education (under new subpart 1 [Technology Readiness and Access] of part D) to award matching grants to states and, through them, subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to strengthen state and local technological infrastructure and professional development that supports digital learning.

Allocates grant funds among states in proportion to each state's share of school improvement funds under part A of title I of the ESEA.

Requires states to use at least 90% of their grant to award subgrants to LEAs.

Requires LEAs to use: (1) at least 40% of those funds to support the acquisition of technology that addresses their technology infrastructure and access needs, and (2) at least 35% of those funds for professional development for digital learning.

Allows states to form purchasing consortia with other states, and allows LEAs to form purchasing consortia with other LEAs, to carry out grant and subgrant activities, including the purchase of technology.

Directs the Secretary (under new subpart 2 [Technology for Tomorrow Fund] of part D) to award renewable, competitive grants to eligible partnerships to improve student achievement, academic growth, and college-and-career readiness through the use of technology and digital learning.

Defines an "eligible partnership" as a partnership that includes at least one high-need LEA and at least one state, LEA or educational service agency, institution of higher education, nonprofit or community-based organization, or business or for-profit organization.

Requires partnerships to use their grants to carry out activities that utilize technology and digital learning to: (1) promote personalized, individualized instruction; (2) improve teacher and school leader preparation, professional development, knowledge, skills, practice, and professional capacity; (3) ensure all students equitable access to high-quality curriculum, instruction, assessments, technology, and digital learning; and (4) improve educational efficiency and productivity.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish partnership performance measures, (2) contract with an outside entity to evaluate the grant program and identify effective practices for improving student outcomes, (3) disseminate and provide technical assistance to LEAs and states on best practices in utilizing technology and digital learning for student advancement, and (4) ensure that the Department of Education applies those best practices to other innovation fund programs.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-07 00:00:00

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Education to award competitive grants to partnerships to: (1) provide high quality professional development to elementary school principals in early childhood education and development; (2) gain a knowledge base and capacity to provide high quality early childhood education; and (3) collaborate with early childhood education providers, services providers, and families in creating a continuum of high quality development and learning for children in the community and school settings.

Requires each partnership to consist of: (1) a public or private entity experienced in training elementary school principals, (2) at least one public agency, and (3) at least one early childhood education organization that trains early childhood education providers.

Requires grantees to conduct an ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of their grant-funded programs and activities.

Directs the Secretary to establish a panel of leading experts in elementary and early childhood education to: (1) identify the best practices in professional development for elementary school principals in early childhood education, (2) review the effective coordination of such training among this Act's grantees, and (3) disseminate the latest research and findings regarding such training.
Topic: Education — Excellence
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-10 00:00:00

Strengthening Kids' Interest in Learning and Libraries Act or the SKILLS Act - Amends part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to require the inclusion of effective school library programs in school improvement programs.

Defines an "effective school library program" as one that: (1) is staffed by a state sanctioned school librarian; (2) has up-to-date materials and technology, including broadband; (3) includes regular collaboration between teachers and school librarians concerning school reform efforts; and (4) supports the development of digital literacy skills.

Replaces the existing program under subpart 4 (Improving Literacy Through School Libraries) of part B of title I of the ESEA with a new program (Improving Literacy and College and Career Readiness Through Effective School Library Programs) awarding competitive three-year grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop and enhance effective school library programs. Makes LEAs eligible for such grants only if at least 20% of their students are impoverished.

Amends part A (Teacher and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund) of title II of the ESEA to rename part A the Teacher, School Librarian, and Principal Training and Recruiting Fund. Requires states and LEAs to use funds under the program to train school librarians, and recruit and retain highly effective school librarians.