Reid To Introduce GRADUATES Act

For the better part of this legislative session, Congress’ education committees have been dominated by work on higher education programs or reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Meanwhile, however, the matter of American competitiveness continues to garner some attention, though remains out of the spotlight. Next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) plan to introduce the Getting Retention and Diplomas Up Among Today’s Enrolled Students (GRADUATES) Act.


The GRADUATES Act attempts to take strides toward making sure secondary school students are better prepared to move on to postsecondary education or to enter the workforce. At a time when a high school diploma is considered the minimum qualification necessary to support a good job and family well-being, this bill is intended to help curb the 30% dropout rate across the country. Preparing well-educated and well-trained individuals to enter the workforce is considered the cornerstone of any plan to keep America competitive in the global market. The bill would:
• Provide grants to partnerships between state educational agencies or local educational agencies with institutes of higher education, community based organizations, non-profit organizations, businesses, or school development organizations to create innovative models of reform in our nation’s secondary schools;
• Create evidence-based, systemic and replicable models of reform in secondary schools that improve student achievement and prepare students to succeed in post-secondary education and the 21st century workforce;
• Provide for tight research, evaluation and accountability to ensure that while the legislation would support a wide-range of strategies, federal funding would only be sustained for programs with proven improvement in student achievement; the Secretary would distribute “best practices” based on the research and evaluation;
• Support a variety of strategies for innovation in secondary schools such as multiple pathways, personalization, early college and dual enrollment, career academies, improved transitions and alignment, expanded learning time, post-secondary and work-based learning opportunities, increased autonomy and flexibility at the school level, improved learning opportunities in rural schools, and increasing rigor at all levels of secondary education aligned with post-secondary education and the workforce; and
• Authorize $500 million in competitive grants for five years.
No timetable exists for when the bill will go for markup in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Meanwhile the House and Senate are ready to go to conference on H.R. 2272, the 21st Century Competitiveness Act, a bill that focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs. The Senate version would double the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) budget, from $5.6 billion in fiscal 2006 to $11.2 billion by fiscal 2011. The NSF contributes about 20% of all federal money awarded for basic research at U.S. universities. The House version of the bill reauthorizes the NSF at a total of $21 billion through fiscal year 2010. It would also reauthorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the first time in more than a decade at a total of $2.5 billion through fiscal year 2010.