Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act

Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act - Title I: Comprehensive Restructuring - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to add a new title VIII, Restructuring Program.

National Education Standards and Assessment Act of 1992 - Establishes, under such new title, the National Education Standards and Assessment program, to: (1) advance establishment of voluntary national education content standards and raise student and school academic performance; and (2) provide funds for developing voluntary national school delivery standards and for further research and development on assessment to measure progress in meeting national education goals and standards.

Establishes a National Education Goals Panel (the Panel).

Provides that the Panel shall be composed of 18 members, as follows: (1) two appointed by the President; (2) eight Governors (three from the same political party as the President, and five from the opposite political party); (3) four Members of Congress; and (4) four State legislators. Sets forth special appointment rules, and requirements for terms of service. Authorizes appropriations.

Sets forth various functions of the Panel, including: (1) establishing an interactive process for developing voluntary national education content and school delivery standards; (2) recommending groups and organizations to be selected for grants to develop such standards and model assessments of the content standards for mathematics; (3) certifying the voluntary national standards submitted by such groups (after review by a technical review committee); (4) proposing various measures for evaluating such standards and progress; (5) selecting various measures and indicators in each goal area; (6) requiring State reporting of student achievement data to be in the context of other relevant information about student, school, and system performance; and (7) issuing an annual report card.

Requires the Panel to: (1) operate on the principle of consensus in carrying out its responsibilities; and (2) make arrangements with any appropriate entity to generate or collect data to assess progress toward meeting the national education goals.

Requires the Panel to establish a technical review committee (the Committee) to advise and assist it. Requires the Panel to solicit and consider public nominations in appointing Committee members. Requires the Committee to be composed of: (1) eight educators, including individuals with expertise on standards and assessments; and (2) eight members of the public representing parents, business, civil rights advocates, child advocates, and State and local officials. Requires the Committee to review content and delivery standards developed by groups under grants and recommend whether they should be certified by the Panel.

Directs the Panel to issue an annual National Report Card (Card), including: (1) analysis of U.S. progress toward national goals; (2) comments and recommendations of Federal and State policymakers, representatives of business, and experts on teaching and child development, measurements, curriculum, and educational administration; and (3) identification of continuing gaps in existing educational data. Requires the Panel to: (1) continue to issue the Card annually during its existence; and (2) present such Cards in a form understandable to parents and the general public. Prohibit such Cards from including data using achievement goals established under specified provisions of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), unless such goals have been reviewed and approved by the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.

Directs the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make grants for: (1) Panel operation and activities; (2) development of voluntary national education content standards; and (3) development of voluntary national school delivery standards.

Defines education content (content) standards as a description, in a particular subject area, of the knowledge and skills children should acquire at each grade level. Defines school delivery (delivery) standards as the standards necessary to ensure that each student in a school has a fair opportunity to achieve the knowledge and skills set out in the national education content standards and the work force readiness standards.

Directs the Panel to: (1) establish the processes by which such content and delivery standards are to be developed; (2) make recommendations to the Secretary regarding selection of grantees to develop such standards (teacher and practitioner groups and organizations for content, specified types of consortia for delivery); (3) review and certify such standards after the developing groups or consortia have ratified them; (4) report to the Congress, President, and public on such certified content and delivery standards by December 31, 1994; (5) triennially review the content standards; and (6) make recommendations to the Secretary research on authentic assessment which the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) should undertake.

Directs the Secretary, through the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), to conduct an evaluation and issue reports, including: (1) an evaluation of the effectiveness of the school delivery standards, OERI research on authentic assessment, and the model assessments for national content standards for mathematics; (2) recommendations regarding the need for additional criteria to determine the validity, reliability, and fairness of assessments; and (3) criteria for evaluating assessments' technical quality in relation to intended use and their alignment with content standards. Directs NAS to submit interim and final reports on such evaluation to the Secretary, the Congress, and the public by December 31 of 1993 and 1994.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1993 through 1996 for the Panel, and for FY 1993 and 1994 for such: (1) evaluations and reports; (2) national content standards; and (3) national school delivery standards.

Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act - Establishes, under such new title, the Neighborhood Schools Improvement program, to support a ten-year broad-based public effort to improve education for all students in the Nation through grants to States to restructure education systems at State and local levels, through coherent and coordinated changes and without jeopardizing funding for existing Federal education programs.

Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make such grants to State educational agencies (SEAs) to enable States and local educational agencies (LEAs) to reform and improve the quality of education. Requires such grants to be used to: (1) develop innovative educational reform plans, including State achievement goals, and quality development in curricular frameworks, and materials, professional development strategies, and assessment tools; and (2) implement reforms and plans to improve the education system at the State and local levels.

Sets forth application requirements. Requires SEA grant applications to cover a five-year period, and to contain specified assurances, descriptions, and other provisions. Directs the Secretary to: (1) approve applications and amendments that meet such requirements and that are of sufficient quality to meet specified objectives; and (2) give notice, technical assistance, and opportunity for a hearing before any final disapproval.

Allows the SEA to reapply for such grant assistance for a second five-year period. Requires the Secretary to approve a second award if the State has met all its reporting requirements and demonstrates reasonable progress in carrying out its plan.

Requires each State program assisted under this Act to establish a panel to develop a statewide reform plan. Sets forth requirements for various officials and entities to be represented on such panel.

Sets forth requirements for State plan contents, and for plan development, approval, and oversight review procedures.

Requires States with approved plans to use funds (allotted by the Secretary under this Act, and State and private funds contributed to make up the total cost of a State program) to: (1) develop and implement State plans, including goals, curricular frameworks, school delivery standards, and assessment systems; (2) panel activities; (3) subgrants to LEAs; (4) technical assistance (including information dissemination) to carry out local plans; and (5) evaluation, reporting, and data collection.

Authorizes subgrants to LEAs, in the first year of a State's allotment, to develop local plans. Requires the SEA, in the second and each succeeding year, to make subgrants to LEAs, from not less than 75 percent of the total cost of the State's program, provided that: (1) at least one LEA in each congressional district shall receive a subgrant; and (2) the LEA with the greatest number of disadvantaged children in the State shall receive a subgrant. Requires that funds available under this Act be used to carry out the plan in a manner which ensures that all children, and especially those identified through the assessment process as not achieving satisfactorily, are afforded ample opportunity to reach local, State, and national goals.

Sets forth requirements for content, development, and approval of local plans. Requires LEAs to establish local committees to develop plans which LEAs must formally approve. Requires local plans to assure: (1) broad-based community participation in plan development; and (2) ongoing evaluation of plan effectiveness, including annual review and making necessary changes. Requires local plans to propose district-wide reform which includes: (1) setting local goals; (2) ensuring that curricular and instructional materials reflect State and local goals and State curricular frameworks; (3) providing teacher and administrator training; (4) adopting or developing a curriculum-based assessment system to measure progress toward meeting State and local goals; and (5) review and restructuring, if necessary, of the LEA and its individual schools' administrative and staffing structure. Requires local plans to also include provisions relating to: (1) parental and secondary student involvement; (2) nondiscriminatory availability of curricular frameworks and materials and professional development; (3) ongoing evaluation; (4) review of existing Federal programs' contribution; (5) laws and regulations impeding the plan; (6) maximum local level use of funds; (7) dissemination of successful practices; and (8) special attention to minority students and female students. to local plans evidencing broad community support. Sets forth provisions for: (1) State technical assistance for local plan development; (2) LEA review and approval of the local plan; (3) conditions for additional subgrants; and (4) oversight review of the local plan.

Requires LEAs to use such subgrant funds for district-wide reform, consistent with State and local plans. Sets forth a list of authorized activities (including site-based management and merit schools).

Authorizes appropriations to carry out this Act for FY 1993 through 2001.

Directs the Secretary to allot annually a specified portion of funds under this Act to the Secretary of the Interior to benefit Indian students enrolled in schools funded by the Department of the Interior for Indian students.

Authorizes the Secretary, from the remaining funds under this Act, to make annual grants to States with approved applications based upon the formula for State allotments under the chapter 1 program for education of disadvantaged children. Provides for a gradually declining Federal share (from 100 percent in the first year to 33 percent in the fifth and any succeeding year) of total program costs. Requires the remaining program cost to be paid by the State from a combination of State and private sector funds. Limits the amount which may be reserved for administrative costs. Sets forth maintenance of effort requirements.

Sets forth provisions for an agreement between the Secretary and the Secretary of the Interior concerning the payment of the latter under this Act for Indian students, including specified assurances, terms, and panel designation.

Sets forth requirements relating to the availability of information and training for private schools with respect to funds under this Act.

Requires annual progress reports by States to the Secretary, including progress toward State goals and plans and descriptions of proposed activities for the succeeding year and of Federal regulations which may impede local reform activities. Requires, in addition, State biennial reports on LEA revenues and expenditures, including specified information as well as a detailed description of the State's school finance programs. Directs the Secretary to provide technical assistance for State compliance with such reporting requirements.

Directs the National Center for Educational Statistics to review data from such State reports to determine adherence to specified definitions before such data is submitted for policy analysis by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Directs the Secretary to evaluate a representative sample of such State and local reform efforts, over the course of the ten-year authorization, to assess their effectiveness in improving educational performance outcomes of all children, including an examination of such activities' effects on disadvantaged students. Authorizes reservation of a portion of funds for such evaluation.

Directs the Secretary to disseminate, annually and upon request, information to the States on approaches and materials developed under this Act or through related efforts.

Directs the Secretary to provide, through a contract with NAS, for preparation of a statistical, legal, and policy analysis of school finance and related data reported by States in their required biennial reports. Requires such analysis to: (1) address disparities in educational expenditures, and the reasons for such disparities, among LEAs in each State and among States across the Nation; and (2) describe the degree to which data in State reports was useful in preparation of the analysis. Sets forth requirements for the methodology of such analysis. Requires NAS to develop model State equalized school finance programs. Requires NAS to report to specified congressional officials, within three years following the first allotment to States under this Act, on such information in such analysis. Directs the Secretary to make such report available to the States and, upon request, to the public. Directs the Secretary to provide, upon request and either directly or by contract, technical assistance to States which endeavor to implement a model school finance program developed by NAS.

Directs the Secretary to report annually to specified congressional officials on: (1) State progress in developing and implementing their plans under this Act; (2) Federal laws or regulations identified by States and LEAs as impeding system-wide school reform; and (3) average per pupil expenditures by States.

Declares that nothing in this Act shall supersede State law or be construed to: (1) authorize any Federal department, agency, officer, or employee to exercise any control over curriculum, instruction program, administration, or personnel of any educational institution or school system, or to prescribe the use of a particular examination or standards; (2) limit rights or responsibilities of any person under any Federal law; or (3) prohibit an LEA from receiving contributions from private organizations or individuals to support development or implementation of its local reform plan.

Flexibility for Educational Effectiveness Act of 1992 - Establishes, under such new title VIII, a Flexibility Demonstration Program (Program), in order to demonstrate the effectiveness, in several States and schools, of granting waivers of Federal and State laws and regulations so that services can be more effectively provided to disadvantaged children.

Establishes a Committee on Services to Children (the Committee), composed of the Secretaries of Education, of Agriculture, of Labor, and of Health and Human Services, to coordinate certain activities of their departments to facilitate demonstration projects that waive specified requirements of Federal laws and regulations they administer. Requires the Committee, within 60 days after its establishment, to publish a notice and description of programs providing health, mental health, social services, or substance abuse prevention and treatment for which waivers of requirements are available under other Federal laws, in order to encourage coordination of such programs with programs included under this Act.

Directs the Committee to: (1) review applications from States for demonstration projects; and (2) approve applications of up to 15 States involving not more than 20 schools in each State. Prohibits the Committee from exercising authority over the development of or specific provisions of a State application.

Authorizes the Committee to carry out the Program by waiving certain requirements in up to 15 States involving not more than 20 schools in each State for demonstration purposes to find more flexible ways to provide education and services to disadvantaged students. Allows the demonstration projects to include simplification, coordination, and combination of some of the requirements in the categories of: (1) related Federal and State preschool and early childhood development for disadvantaged children; (2) related Federal and State programs for disadvantaged students in elementary and secondary schools; (3) Federal and State educational programs for disadvantaged children and social, health, and nutrition programs targeted at such children; and (4) the administration of Federal and State school lunch and school breakfast programs.

Sets forth program eligibility and application requirements and priorities for State and local educational agencies. Requires local applications to include not more than four schools in the jurisdiction of the LEA.

Allows a State educational agency (SEA) to request waivers of Federal requirements relating to uses of funds for programs serving disadvantaged students in the regular classroom. Requires such programs to include those under chapter 1 of title I ESEA for education of disadvantaged children at preschool, elementary, and secondary levels. Allows such programs also to include those under specified Federal laws relating to such levels.

Allows an SEA also to request waivers of Federal requirements for operation of: (1) programs to improve the social, health, and nutritional condition of disadvantaged children; and (2) school lunch and school breakfast programs (but with certain restrictions on the scope of such waivers).

Sets forth restrictions on all such waivers with respect to Federal requirements involving civil rights and discrimination, private usage of funds, maintenance of effort or comparability of services, supplementation of non-Federal funds, equitable participation of private school students, certain General Education Provisions Act requirements, parental participation, fund distribution, and prohibitions against use of funds for construction, renovation, or repair of facilities.

Provides for early termination of a waiver granted to a State or school when: (1) the school has not demonstrated adequate progress toward meeting the goals outlined in the local educational agency application; or (2) a State or school has been found to have violated any restriction on the waiver authority.

Terminates the Committee's authority to grant waivers on September 30, 1997.

Allows a school to decline, at any time, to participate in a project under this flexibility Program.

Requires annual reports to the Committee by any SEA selected for a demonstration project, and annual reports by the Committee to specified congressional committee on the progress of each participating school in meeting application goals.

Directs the Secretary to contract with the National Academy of Education to evaluate and report, by January 1, 1991, to specified congressional committees on the demonstration projects with respect to: (1) accuracy of information received under State reporting requirements; (2) effectiveness in raising disadvantaged student achievement levels and improving efficiency at each school; and (3) effectiveness of coordinated service agreements at State and local levels in delivering comprehensive services to disadvantaged children.

Suspends, until July 1, 1993, the effectiveness of a specified final rule issued to carry out a unified compliance system under the National School Lunch Act, as well as that of any subsequent rule issued by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out such system (but does not suspend further planning and development activities for implementation of such system, or any other requirements for local food service authorities under such Act).

Authorizes appropriations for the evaluation of demonstration projects under such flexibility program.

Establishes, as a new title IX of ESEA, the following provisions relating to a National Board on Workforce Skills.

Directs the Secretary, through grant or contract with NAS, to: (1) identify generic workplace readiness skills that all students should have upon completion of high school; (2) conduct research on such skills, including evaluating existing research and practices to determine the relationship between possession of skills and competent job performance; (3) make recommendations for integrating generic workforce readiness skills into school-based learning; and (4) propose methods to upgrade generic workforce skills as requirements of the economy change.

Directs NAS to establish a National Board of Workforce Skills, composed of representatives from business and industry, organized labor (including organizations with national training programs), education, local government, and others with expertise in identifying and teaching generic workplace readiness skills.

Directs NAS to work with the National Education Goals Panel (the Panel) and the groups and organizations (and consortia) authorized to develop national education content standards and national school delivery standards to include identified workforce skills. Requires the Panel and such groups and organizations to use the NAS recommendations.

Directs the Secretary to enter into an appropriate arrangement with NAS to carry out these responsibilities relating to workforce skills.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1993.

Amends the Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Act (part A of title II of ESEA) to authorize the Secretary, with specified funds for national programs, to make grants to SEAs, LEAs, higher education institutions, organizations with expertise in making assessments, or a combination of such entities, to support development of model assessments tied to the mathematics standards.

Title II: General Education Provisions Act Amendments - Amends the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) to extend through FY 1994 the authorization of appropriations for: (1) the National Center for Education Statistics; and (2) the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP). Requires the NAEP to conduct in 1994 trial assessments of mathematics and reading for certain grades and to develop for administration in 1994 trial assessments of mathematics, reading, and science for certain other elementary and secondary school grades, in States that wish to participate, to determine whether such assessments yield valid and reliable State representative data (including in such assessments students in public and private schools in a manner that ensure comparability with the national sample). Requires a specified independent evaluation to also assess important issues affecting the quality and integrity of the NAEP. Directs the Secretary to provide for the organization that conducts such independent evaluation to study and report to the Congress within 120 days after enactment of this Act, on: (1) the process whereby the National Assessment Governing Board sets certain achievement goals for each age and grade in each subject area to be tested under NAEP; and (2) the ability of NAEP to maintain valid data with respect to trends in student performance.

Revises GEPA with respect to State responsibility to furnish information concerning uses of Federal funds.

Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions - Revises provisions for schoolwide projects for education of disadvantaged children to allow the average per pupil expenditure in schools with such projects to be reduced by a LEA in exact proportion to the average reduction of expenditures for all schools in such LEA.

Amends the National Education Commission on Time and Learning Act (title I of the Education Council Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-62)) to extend such Commission's: (1) final report deadline by one year; and (2) authorization of appropriations through FY 1995.

Parents as Teachers: the Family Involvement in Education Act of 1992 - Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to make grants to States for parents as teachers programs, with special consideration for hard-to-serve populations.

Makes eligible for such a grant any State which operates a parents as teachers program associated with the Parents as Teachers National Center in Missouri.

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.

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.

Provides for a declining Federal share in such program from 100 percent in the first year to 25 percent in the fifth year.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1992 through 1996. Limits such authorizations to one in any fiscal year. Requires such authorized use of items or data to be evaluated for technical merit, and such evaluations to be reported to the specified congressional committees.

Includes information on postsecondary employment and training programs under the scope of information to be collected by the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee and related State committees under such Act. Requires each State board for higher education, in developing a system to develop a data collection system whose results (with respect to graduation, completion, job placement, and licensing rates) can be integrated into such occupational information system.

Title IV: Vocational Education Assessment - Amends the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act to allow the Commissioner for Education Statistics to authorize a State education agency (SEA) or a consortium of SEAs to use items and data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to evaluate a course of study, upon the Commissioner's determination that such use will not have specified prohibited results or other prohibited uses. Requires the Commissioner to report to specified congressional officials on such authorizations of SEA use of NAEP data.

Title V: Remedy for Noncompliance - Amends Federal law relating to impact aid to provide for enforcement of the requirement that personnel provided under an arrangement for public education for children residing on Federal property outside the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii shall receive compensation and other incidents of employment on the same basis as provided for similar positions in the public schools of the District of Columbia. Grants any such personnel the right to recover in a civil action against the United States full monetary compensation for any differences in such incidents of employment, together with reasonable attorneys' fees, and interest. Sets forth provisions for pending claims, including special rules relating to claims of non-supervisory professional personnel employed by the Antilles Consolidated School System. Makes any authorization to make payments as a result of these amendments effective only to the extent of available appropriations.

Title VI: Civic and Character Values-in-Schools - Civic and Character Values-In-Schools Act of 1992 - Establishes the Commission on Values Education.

Directs the Commission to report, with recommendations, to the Congress and the President within one year after enactment of this Act.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1992 and 1993.

Terminates the Commission 30 days after its final report to the Congress.

Title VII: Demonstration Program - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to provide for an ethics and values demonstration program under the Secretary's Fund for Innovation in Education. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), institutions of higher education, and other public and private organizations to conduct activities designed to stimulate understanding of ethics, civic and character values, and the principles of democracy as a means of enhancing and improving elementary and secondary education. Sets forth authorized uses of such grant funds. Sets forth application requirements.

Title VIII: Buy American - Expresses the sense of the Congress that a recipient (including a nation, group, or organization) of any form of assistance under this Act should, in expending that assistance, purchase American-made equipment and products. Directs the Secretary to provide each such recipient a notice to that effect.