Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Comprehensive Restructuring

Title II: General Education Provisions Act Amendments

Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions

Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act - Title I: Comprehensive Restructuring - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to establish a restructuring program consisting of: (1) national education standards and assessment; (2) neighborhood schools improvement; and (3) a flexibility demonstration program.

National Education Standards and Assessment Act of 1993 - Establishes a National Education Goals Panel (the Panel) to: (1) support development of voluntary national education content and school delivery standards through grants to specified consortia; (2) review and certify such standards; (3) issue an annual national report card; and (4) make recommendations to the Secretary of Education on 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 evaluate such standards and research as well as model assessments for national content standards for mathematics.

Authorizes appropriations.

Neighborhood Schools Improvement Act - Establishes a neighborhood schools improvement program of five-year, renewable grants for State and local educational system changes.

Requires assisted States to establish panels to develop statewide reform plans. Requires local educational agencies (LEAs) which desire to receive program subgrants to establish committees to develop local plans.

Authorizes appropriations.

Flexibility for Educational Effectiveness Act of 1993 - Establishes a flexibility demonstration program to promote flexibility in delivery of education and other services to disadvantaged children.

Authorizes the Secretary to waive certain statutory or regulatory requirements for up to ten States which have implemented comprehensive regulatory reform plans involving up to 20 LEAs and 75 schools in each such State. Authorizes other Federal agencies to enter into agreements with the Secretary to grant similar waivers of regulatory requirements for elementary, secondary, or youth vocational training programs they administer.

Authorizes eligible States to request such waivers, with certain restrictions, for specified programs serving the disadvantaged under: (1) preschool, elementary, and secondary education, and youth vocational training programs; (2) social, health, and nutrition programs; and (3) national school lunch and child nutrition programs.

Directs the Secretary to contract with the National Academy of Education for an evaluation of such demonstration projects. Authorizes appropriations.

Directs the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to establish a National Board on Workforce Skills. Directs the Secretary, through a grant or contract with NAS, to: (1) identify workplace readiness skills that all students should have upon completion of high school; (2) research and recommend ways of integrating them into school-based learning; and (3) propose methods to update them as the economy's requirements change.

Directs NAS to work with the National Education Goals Panel and the groups and organizations authorized to develop national content and school delivery standards to include workplace readiness skills in such standards.

Authorizes appropriations.

Amends ESEA provisions for Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education national program funds to authorize the Secretary to make grants to various entities to support development of model assessments tied to the voluntary national content standards for mathematics.

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 public and private school grades, in States that wish to participate. Directs the Secretary to provide for a study and report to the Congress on: (1) the process whereby the National Assessment Governing Board sets certain achievement goals; 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 - 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 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. Limits such authorizations to one in any fiscal year.

Requires the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee to include information on postsecondary employment and training programs in the occupational information system. Requires State boards of education to develop a data collection system (to provide data on graduation or completion rates, job placement rates from occupationally specific programs, and licensing rates) whose results can be integrated into the occupational information system.

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 the Commission's authorization of appropriations through FY 1995.