Educational Research and Improvement Act of 1993

Summary

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Office of Educational Research and Improvement Title II: Improved Statistics Regarding American Schools Title III: Educational Improvement Programs Title IV: Definitions Office of Educational Research and Improvement Reauthorization Act - Title I: Office of Educational Research and Improvement - (Sec. 101) Amends the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) to reauthorize and revise provisions for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). Eliminates the National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement. Provides that OERI, administered by the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement (the Assistant Secretary), shall include: (1) the Distinguished Board of Governors for Educational Research (the Board); (2) the Directorates for Educational Research; (3) the regional educational laboratories; (4) the Office of Educational Dissemination; (5) the National Education Library; (6) the Education Resources Information Clearinghouses; (7) the National Center for Education Statistics, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress; and (8) such other entities as the Assistant Secretary deems appropriate. Requires open competition for all awards of grants or contracts by OERI. Requires the Assistant Secretary to establish the following five national directorates for educational research on: (1) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; (2) Early Childhood Learning, Families and Communities; (3) the Educational Achievement of Historically Underserved Populations; (4) School Organization, Structure and Finance; and (5) Postsecondary and Adult Education. Limits the number of regional educational laboratories that the Assistant Secretary shall support (minimum ten, maximum 15). Sets planning and reporting requirements and a five-year minimum contract duration. Leaves existing regional educational laboratory contracts in effect. Provides for a teacher research dissemination network program. Authorizes the Assistant Secretary to award grants or contracts to regional educational laboratories to carry out specified summer program activities. Requires each teacher participant to assume certain responsibilities during the school year. Requires an independent evaluation of such program to be submitted to the Congress. Directs the Assistant Secretary to establish an Office of Educational Dissemination (which may include the Education Resources Information Clearinghouses, the National Diffusion Network, and the National Education Library). Authorizes the National Diffusion Network to: (1) provide information through its State facilitators (directly and without program effectiveness panel approval) on model or demonstration projects funded by the Department of Education; and (2) disseminate other information which is available through the Office of Education Dissemination through the Network itself. Establishes a National Library of Education at the Department of Education. Directs the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to appoint a task force of librarians, scholars, teachers, parents, and school leaders to advise on the Library's establishment, prepare a workable plan, identify other supplemental activities and functions, and report to the Secretary. Directs the Secretary to appoint a librarian to head the Library for a five-year renewable term. Directs the Assistant Secretary to establish and support 16 Education Resources Information Clearinghouses (ERICs) (including directly supporting dissemination services). Authorizes appropriations for OERI programs. Authorizes OERI, when more than one Federal agency uses funds to support a single OERI project, to act for all such agencies in administering such funds. Title II: Improved Statistics Regarding American Schools - (Sec. 201) Revises and reauthorizes GEPA provisions for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (National Assessment). Authorizes appropriations. Directs the National Assessment to conduct certain trial assessments in 1994 and 1996. Requires independent technical review of the National Assessment Governing Board replication and validation studies. Provides for Congressional Budget Office (CBO) access to NCES information, subject to specified disclosure restrictions. Directs the Secretary to provide for an independent study and report to the Congress on: (1) the process whereby achievement goals are set; (2) whether they are set at an appropriate level; and (3) the ability of NAEP to maintain valid data with respect to student performance trends. (Sec. 202) Directs the Commissioner of Educational Statistics to report annually to the Congress on school dropouts, using State-provided information. (Sec. 203) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into agreements (with the Secretaries of Defense and of the Interior, respectively) to include in the the National Assessment: (1) the defense dependents education system; and (2) schools for Indian children operated or supported by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. (Sec. 204) Amends the Department of Education Organization Act (DEOA) to authorize the Secretary to use certain funds to pay the expenses and fees of non-Federal experts (field readers) necessary to review applications and proposals. (Sec. 205) Amends DEOA and GEPA to establish an Office Educational Technology (OET) in OERI. Directs the Assistant Secretary to appoint a Technology Board. Transfers the Office of Training Technology Transfer to OET. Directs the Secretary to provide for an independent study to: (1) estimate costs of implementing a national technology repository and transfer system; and (2) assess availability of technology at local levels to access the educational technology to be transmitted. Authorizes OET appropriations. Title III: Educational Improvement Programs - Part A: International Education Programs - (Sec. 311) Directs the Secretary to carry out an International Education Program that shall provide for: (1) grants to study, evaluate, and analyze education systems in other nations (particularly Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan); (2) development or identification of tests to compare international achievement levels in various subject areas; and (3) an International Educational Exchange Program, which shall in part assist Central and Eastern European and former Soviet educators in adapting exemplary civic government and economic education programs developed in the United States. Authorizes the Secretary to award up to three competitive contracts with independent nonprofit educational organizations, with specified types of experience, to carry out the Program. Authorizes appropriations. Part B: Transfer of Education and Training Software - (Sec. 315) Amends the Training Technology Transfer Act of 1988 to authorize appropriations for the program for transfer of education and training software. Part C: Amendments to the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act - (Sec. 321) Amends the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act to include postsecondary employment and training programs among those whose common occupational information needs must be met by the system developed and implemented by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee. Requires each State board for higher education to develop a data collection system whose results can be integrated into the occupational information system. Part D: Satisfactory Progress Study - (Sec. 325) Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary to study the satisfactory progress requirement, particularly with respect to: (1) institutions with short-term periods of instruction; and (2) first year students. Part E: National Education Standards and Assessments Council - (Sec. 331) Establishes a National Education Standards and Assessments Council (the National Council) within the Department of Education, which shall establish national education content and student performance standards. (Sec. 337) Authorizes appropriations. Part F: Elementary Science Equipment Programs - Elementary Science Equipment Act - (Sec. 343) Authorizes the Secretary to allot funds to State educational agencies to award grants to local educational agencies to provide hands-on instruction equipment and materials to elementary schools to improve mathematics and science education. Authorizes appropriations. Part G: Parents as Teachers Program - (Sec. 354) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States for parents as teachers program. Gives grant priority to programs that target parents and children at risk, including families on public assistance. (Sec. 355) Sets forth program requirements, limiting services to families during the period from the last three months of a mother's pregnancy to the child's attaining age three. (Secs. 357 and 358) Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish a Parents as Teachers National Center for information dissemination and technical and training assistance for States with such programs; and (2) evaluate such programs within four years. (Secs. 360 and 360A) Provides for a gradually declining Federal share. Authorizes appropriations. Part H: Media Instruction - (Sec. 361) Directs the Assistant Secretary to enter into a contract with an independent nonprofit organization to establish a national multimedia television-based project, directed to homes, schools, and after-school programs, to motivate and improve the reading comprehension and writing coherence of elementary school-age children. Authorizes appropriations. Part I: Migrant Education - (Sec. 365) Amends the Elementary And Secondary Education Act of 1965 to modify, for programs for migratory children, the definition of "currently migratory child" to include a child who: (1) resides in a school district of more than 15,000 square miles; and (2) migrates at least 20 miles to a temporary residence to enable the child, a parent, or a member of the immediate family to engage in fishing activity. Part J: History and Principles of the Constitution - (Sec. 371) Directs the Secretary to carry out a program to educate students about the history and principles of the Constitution and Bill of Rights by continuing and expanding the educational activities of the Chief Justice Warren E. Burger National Historical Map Contest (the contest) sponsored by the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States. Authorizes the Secretary, through an open competition process, to contract with an independent nonprofit educational organization to carry out such program. Authorizes appropriations. Part K: Classrooms for the Future - Classrooms for the Future Act of 1992 (sic) - (Sec. 377) Directs the Secretary to award competitive three-year grants to eligible consortia to develop instructional programs and technology-based systems for complete courses or units of study for a specific subject and grade level, if these are commercially unavailable locally. Requires eligible consortia to consist of: (1) State or local educational agencies in partnership with businesses; and (2) institutions of higher education or other public or private nonprofit organizations. Requires priority to be given to applications for programs developed: (1) so that they may be adapted and applied nationally; and (2) to raise the achievement levels of students, particularly disadvantaged students not realizing their potential. (Sec. 378) Authorizes appropriations. Part L: Buddy System Computer Education - Buddy System Computer Education Act - (Sec. 383) Directs the Secretary to award a competitive grant to each of three States to create a computer-based education project for children in grades four through six. Gives preference to applications: (1) from States with demonstrated ability or commitment to computer-based technology education; and (2) for school districts serving a large number or percentage of economically disadvantaged students. (Sec. 384) Requires such projects to: (1) be continuous projects for two consecutive groups of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders; (2) operate in not more than seven public elementary schools in a State; and (3) ensure each student participates and has access to a computer at school during the school year and at home during the school year and summer. (Sec. 386) Requires the use of grant funds to provide: (1) hardware and software components to all sites; and (2) training for classroom teachers as well as parents, administrators, and technical personnel. (Sec. 389) Authorizes appropriations. Part M: Compensation - (Sec. 391) Amends Federal law relating to civil service positions and compensation to: (1) increase by four (from six to ten) the number of Assistant Secretaries of Education, at level IV; and (2) eliminate the category of four additional officers of the Department of Education, at level V. Part N: Star Schools - (Sec. 395) Amends the Star Schools Assistance Act to revise the formula for the required reservation of funds for an independent evaluation of the Star Schools Assistance Program. Title IV: Definitions - (Sec. 401) Defines "field-initiated research" as research in which the topics and methods of study are generated by the investigators, not by the source of the research funding.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

6 official files

• Reported to Senate (text)

  Reported to Senate · EN · 16 November 1993

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Reported to Senate (PDF)

  Reported to Senate · EN · 16 November 1993

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Reported to Senate with amendment(s)

  summary · EN · 16 November 1993

  Open at official source

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 3 February 1993

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 3 February 1993

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 3 February 1993

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.