Teaching Fellows Act of 2003

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003, which was reported by the Committee on Education and the Workforce on June 10 by a bipartisan voice vote, complements the No Child Left Behind Act and will help improve the quality and accountability of our Nation's teacher preparation programs.

No Child Left Behind set a lofty, but achievable, goal of placing a highly qualified teacher in every public school classroom by the 2005- 2006 school year. We can all agree that a highly qualified teacher plays a pivotal role in the successful education of our Nation's children, and those children deserve nothing less. Congress has kept our word to increase funding to help ensure teachers can become highly qualified. In fact, we increased funding for teacher quality grants by 35 percent in the first year of No Child Left Behind alone, and the increases are continuing. We are providing the resources, and this bill will build on that effort by supporting our teachers with real reforms.

There is a serious problem when the programs charged with training the teachers of tomorrow are not meeting that goal, and that is exactly what we are facing today. Everyone here will agree that highly qualified teachers prepared to meet the challenges of the classroom and fulfill the needs of our students are essential if we are going to succeed with education reform in America. Yet the Nation's teacher- training programs suffer from serious lack of accountability, and this time it is the teachers who are being left behind.

The bill before us today takes important steps to ensure that teacher-training programs are in fact giving perspective teachers the skills and knowledge they need to meet the highly qualified standard in No Child Left Behind. Let us be clear on this point: this bill is about supporting our teachers. We are expecting a lot from them, and they deserve to have access to high quality training programs that ensure that when they step into the classroom they are truly ready to teach.

This legislation makes several improvements to title II of the Higher Education Act to ensure that teacher-training programs are providing perspective teachers with the skills they need to be highly qualified and ready to teach when they enter the classroom. This bill is about helping teachers, pure and simple, giving them the tools and training they need to meet the needs of our Nation's students.

H.R. 2211 authorizes competitively awarded grants under the Higher Education Act to increase the quality of our teaching force by improving the preparation of perspective teachers and enhancing teacher professional development activities. We want to hold teacher- preparation programs accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers and recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

The Ready to Teach Act ensures that program effectiveness can accurately be measured and places a renewed emphasis on the skills needed to meet the ``highly qualified'' standard found in No Child Left Behind, such as the use of advanced technology in the classroom, vigorous academic content knowledge, scientifically based research and challenging State student academic standards.

Under this legislation, funds can also be used to recruit individuals, and specifically minorities, into the teaching profession. The committee adopted a bipartisan amendment offered by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens), and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) to authorize grants for the creation of Centers of Excellence at high quality, minority-serving institutions.

In general, those Centers of Excellence will help increase teacher recruitment and make institutional improvements to teacher-preparation programs at minority-serving institutions. Grants under this program will be competitively awarded to high quality teacher preparation programs at eligible institutions, which include historically black colleges and universities,

Hispanic-serving institutions, tribally controlled colleges or universities, Alaska native-serving institutions, or native Hawaiian- serving institutions.

Mr. Chairman, as we work to place highly qualified teachers in classrooms across the Nation, I am particularly pleased that the Ready to Teach Act allows for innovative programs that provide alternative options to traditional teacher-training programs. Proposals outlined in this bill, such as charter colleges of education, provide a much-needed alternative route to training highly qualified and effective teachers.

H.R. 2211 authorizes States to use funds to set up charter colleges of education that function in a manner similar to elementary and secondary charter schools, except that they would prepare highly qualified teachers in a higher-education setting. Charter colleges of education would exchange flexibility in meeting State requirements for institutional commitments to produce results-based outcomes for teacher-education graduates, measured based on increased student academic achievement.

This bill takes the important step of recognizing that individuals seeking to enter the teaching profession often have varied backgrounds; and by creating a more flexible approach that steps outside the box, these individuals can become highly qualified teachers through training programs as unique as their own individual experiences.

H.R. 2211 will also hold teacher-preparation programs accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers. While current higher-education law contains annual reporting requirements, these reporting measures have often proven ineffective in measuring the true quality of teacher- preparation programs. In fact, the current requirements have often been manipulated, leaving data skewed and often irrelevant. The Ready to Teach Act includes accountability provisions that will strengthen the reporting measures and hold teacher-preparation programs accountable for providing accurate and useful information.

I would like to thank a new member of our committee, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), the author of this bill, for his work on the Ready to Teach Act. I would also like to commend my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), the ranking member; the gentleman from California (Chairman McKeon) of the subcommittee; and his ranking member, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), for their bipartisan effort on this bill. They have put together a bipartisan bill that makes commonsense changes to title II of the Higher Education Act to help improve the quality of our Nation's teachers.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the underlying bill.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, let me again congratulate my friend from Michigan. This is a bipartisan bill that has been worked on with Members on both sides of the aisle to try to address the serious needs that we have in our teacher preparation programs as outlined in title II of the Higher Education Act. But as a side note, I need to respond to my colleague from Michigan when it comes to the issue of funding the Federal Government's role in education.

We can look at this as a glass half empty, or we can look at it as a glass half full. Federal education spending over the last 3 fiscal years has gone from $28 billion for elementary and secondary programs to $35.7 billion for these same programs, including almost $400 million to pay for the development and implementation of the testing requirements under No Child Left Behind.

We can look at title I. It has been increased almost 200 percent over the last 6 years. We can look at the last 6 years of special education funding having risen 300 percent.

So when Members come to the floor of the House and suggest that we are not meeting our commitments, I have no choice but to stand up and say, let us be honest. We are doing our share.

Could we do more? Of course, we could do more.

But as I told my colleagues one day, I was elected to come to Congress and make decisions; I was not elected to be Santa Claus, and today is not Christmas. As we get through the appropriations process, we are going to continue to work at the appropriate funding levels for these education programs. But, today, we have a bipartisan bill that will help improve the quality of our Nation's teachers and those who seek to be teachers, and we have to continue to work together to meet this important goal.

Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), the author of this bill, who spent an awful lot of time as a school board member, a State legislator, and now as a Member of Congress, developing teacher-training programs to help meet the needs of our Nation's teachers.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger), a senior member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns), a former college professor.

Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Education.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, let me thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller), and Members on both sides of the aisle for their work. I especially want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), a new member of our committee and new Member of Congress, for his authorship of the underlying bill.

We all know that one of the real keys to ensuring every child in America gets a chance at a good education is to ensure that every child has a highly qualified teacher in their classroom. There has been much effort around the country at improving the quality of teacher preparation programs. What we try to do in the bill we have before us today is to strengthen those programs and to bring greater accountability for those programs that need a little more oversight than they are getting today.

The goal here is to take young people and others outside of the profession and put them through rigorous programs that will benefit them and their students when they are in the classroom. There are just too many programs today around the country that are doing not as well as they could in terms of preparing teachers for tomorrow.

There has been a lot of discussion here about funding, because later on today the House is expected to take up the Labor-HHS appropriation bill, which includes the funding for education. As I said earlier, 2 to 3 years ago we were spending $28 billion a year on elementary and secondary education programs. Today we are spending $35.7 billion per year. Most of the money to fund primary and secondary education comes from State governments, local governments, and property taxes. The Federal Government's role is focused on helping needier students have a better chance at the same kind of education than our children received.

We are doing our share. Could we be doing more? Absolutely, we could be doing more. But we are here, as I said before, to make decisions, and I do think that we are meeting our commitments under No Child Left Behind. I do again suggest to all of our Members that this is a good underlying bipartisan bill, so let us support it.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), for yielding me this time. I would like to thank the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), as well as the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee). We have worked very closely, very good together, as the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) pointed out, in a very bipartisan fashion. And, as the chairman just mentioned, it is not all about funding; it is certainly also about accountability. That is what we are trying to do in the reauthorization of the Title II part of the Higher Education Act: We want to bring additional accountability so that we make sure that no child is left behind by assuring that a qualified teacher is, indeed, in every classroom.

H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003, is a bill that I introduced to help ensure that teacher training programs are producing well-prepared teachers to meet the needs of American students. H.R. 2211 updates the teacher provisions of the Higher Education Act. Specifically, this legislation amends Part A, Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants for States and Partnerships, and also Part B, Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology of Title II of the Higher Education Act. In addition, H.R. 2211 authorizes teacher preparation Centers of Excellence for minority-serving institutions.

The purposes of the Ready to Teach Act are to increase student academic achievement, elevate the quality of the current and future teaching force by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities; hold teacher preparation programs accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers; and to recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

As in current law, H.R. 2211 authorizes three types of competitive grant programs: State grants, partnership grants, and teacher recruitment grants.

State grant funds must be used to reform teacher preparation requirements, coordinate with activities under Title II of No Child Left Behind Act, and ensure that current and future teachers are highly qualified. Programs administered through State grants will focus on effective teacher preparation, placing a renewed emphasis on the skills needed to meet the ``highly qualified'' standard.

The partnership grants allow effective partners to join together, combining their strengths and resources to train highly qualified teachers and achieve success in the classroom. The eligible partnerships must include four partners: a high-quality teacher preparation program at an institution of higher education; a college of arts and sciences, presumably at that same institution; a high-need, local educational agency; and a public or private educational organization. It can include additional partners, but it must include those four. These partnerships will require the faculty of the teacher preparation programs to serve with a highly qualified teacher in the classroom, allowing effective in-class experience to ensure that teachers are truly prepared to teach. Among other things, partnership activities will help to ensure that teachers are able to use advanced technology effectively in the classroom, address the needs of students with different learning styles, including students with disabilities, and receive training in methods of improving student behavior in the classroom.

As America holds teacher preparation programs accountable for preparing teachers who will ensure that no child is left behind, the need to recruit individuals into the teaching profession will only expand. Teacher recruitment grants will help bring high-quality individuals into teacher programs and ultimately put more highly qualified teachers into the classrooms. H.R. 2211 recognizes the need to ensure that high-need, local educational agencies are able to effectively recruit highly qualified teachers, and will help answer that need by increasing the number of teachers being trained.

H.R. 2211 also includes a new program which is based on provisions submitted to the committee by the United Negro College Fund and the Hispanic Education Coalition to authorize teacher preparation Centers of Excellence at minority-serving institutions. In general, the purpose of this program and this amendment brought to us by my colleague and good friend, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Burns), are to increase teacher recruitment and to make institutional improvements to teacher preparation programs at minority-serving institutions.

While current higher education law contains annual reporting and accountability requirements for institutions of higher education, these measures, as the chairman indicated, have proven ineffective in determining the true quality of teacher preparation programs. H.R. 2211 in this reauthorization adds accountability provisions to the Higher Education Act that will strengthen these current law provisions and hold teacher preparation programs accountable for providing accurate and useful information about the quality of their programs.

Mr. Chairman, in summary, H.R. 2211 is specifically designed to align teacher preparation programs with the high standards of accountability and results provided for in No Child Left Behind Act. This Ready to Teach Act will help to ensure that program effectiveness can accurately be measured and places a strong focus on the quality of teacher preparation and a renewed emphasis on the skills needed to meet the ``highly qualified'' standard found in the No Child Left Behind Act.

In conclusion, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their assistance in moving this bill through the process. It is a bipartisan product, Mr. Chairman, of which we can all be proud. I urge each and every one of my colleagues to support H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003.

Mr. Chairman, pursuant to the rule, I offer amendment No. 1.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The manager's amendment to H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003, makes refinements to the bill as reported by the Committee on Education and the Workforce on June 10, 2003. This has been a bipartisan bill every step of the way, and I believe it will enjoy broad support among my colleagues in the House. I will not take a great deal of time to describe the amendment in detail since it was drafted in consultation with our Democratic Member, and it contains mostly technical and clarifying changes as recommended by the Department of Education.

However, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take a moment to point out a few of the changes of this proposed amendment. As currently drafted, H.R. 2211 authorizes grants to design or redesign teacher preparation programs that are based on rigorous academic content, scientifically based research, and challenging State student academic content standards. This amendment adds language to ensure that teachers in these programs are able to understand the scientifically based research and how to apply that in their classrooms.

Under H.R. 2211, each partnership that applies for a grant must include at least a high-quality teacher preparation program at an institution of higher education; second, a school of arts and sciences; third, a high-need local education agency; and, finally, a public or private educational organization. In addition, this legislation requires that at least 50 percent of partnership grant funds be used to ``directly benefit'' partner local education agencies. This provision in the amendment is designed to ensure that each partner local education agency has the ability to influence grant activities, and guarantees that partnership activities focus on the needs of teachers and students in the classroom.

My amendment adds a provision to the bill to require that partnership grant applications contain a certification from the partner local educational agencies stating that they will ``directly benefit'' from the proposed grant activities. This amendment ensures that the partnership grant funds are used only to supplement, not to supplant, other Federal, State, and local funds that would otherwise be used for teacher preparation activities.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, my amendment ensures that teacher preparation program average raw score data that is reported to the State is also included in the State report card on quality of teacher preparation.

This amendment makes common-sense, noncontroversial changes to the legislation, and I ask for my colleagues' support. Support it because it improves the quality of the programs authorized under Title II of the Higher Education Act.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote, and, pending that, I make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to control the time of the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner).

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner) and my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), a new member of the committee who has shown great leadership in bringing forth this bill. I want to thank him for his work on this important piece of legislation.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003, a bipartisan bill that seeks to meet the call of the No Child Left Behind Act to place a highly qualified teacher in every classroom. It makes improvements to Title II of the Higher Education Act to help ensure teacher training programs are producing well-prepared teachers to meet the needs of America's students.

There is widespread awareness that the subject matter, knowledge, and teaching skills of teachers play a central role in the success of elementary and secondary education reform. More than half of the 2.2 million teachers that America's schools will need to hire over the next 10 years will be first-time teachers, and they will need to be well prepared for the challenges of today's classrooms. For these reasons, the Nation's attention has increasingly focused on the role that institutions of higher education and States play in ensuring that new teachers have the content knowledge and teaching skills they need to ensure that all students are held to higher standards.

Accordingly, building on current law, the Ready to Teach Act authorizes three types of teacher training grants, and each play a unique, yet crucial, role in the education of tomorrow's teachers. State grant funds must be used to reform teacher preparation requirements and ensure that current and future teachers are highly qualified. Partnership grants allow effective partners to join together, combining strengths and resources to train highly qualified teachers and achieve success where it matters most: in the classroom. Teacher recruitment grants help bring high-quality individuals into teacher programs, and ultimately put more highly qualified teachers into classrooms.

H.R. 2211 includes a new program to authorize grants for the creation of teacher preparation programs at minority-serving institutions around the country. These institutions provide equal opportunity and strong academic programs for minority and disadvantaged students to help achieve greater financial stability for the institutions that serve these students.

In general, the Ready to Teach Act focuses on three key objectives, accountability, flexibility, and effectiveness, to improve the quality of teacher preparation.

While current higher education law contains some annual reporting requirements, these reporting measures have proven ineffective in measuring the true quality of teacher preparation programs. In fact, the current requirements have often been manipulated, leaving data skewed and often irrelevant. H.R. 2211 includes accountability provisions that will strengthen reporting requirements and hold teacher preparation programs accountable for providing accurate and useful information.

This legislation recognizes that flexibility should exist in methods used for training highly qualified teachers and, for that reason, would allow funds to be used for innovative methods in teacher preparation programs such as chartered colleges of education, which can provide an adequate gateway for teachers to become highly qualified. Pioneering programs such as charter colleges of education would also implement systems to gauge a true measure of teacher effectiveness: the academic achievement of students.

In addition to increasing accountability measures, the Ready to Teach Act increases the effectiveness and quality in teacher training by including provisions to focus training on the skills and knowledge needed to prepare highly qualified teachers.

The bill places a renewed emphasis on a broad range of skills required for effective teaching, such as the use of advanced technology in the classroom, rigorous academic content knowledge, scientifically based research and challenging State student academic content standards.

Teacher-preparation programs have a great deal of responsibility contributing to the preparation of our Nation's teachers, and this bill will make sure they are meeting their responsibilities. Once again, I want to commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr.

Gingrey) for introducing the Ready to Teach Act, and I appreciate the bipartisan efforts of the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) on this bill.

I believe the Ready to Teach Act will help to ensure that the best and brightest teachers are teaching our children. I urge our colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), a member of the committee and a good friend of mine.

Mr. Chairman, although I do not oppose the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, we have worked with the minority on this amendment, we support it, and I ask that the membership also support the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, although I do not oppose the amendment, I ask unanimous consent at this time to claim the time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This amendment, Mr. Chairman, was drafted in consultation with the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and we support it. It does include minimum qualifications for mentors, provides training and stipends for mentors, provides mentoring programs for teachers in their first 3 years of teaching, and provides regular and ongoing opportunities for mentors and mentees to observe each other's teaching methods in classroom settings during the school day.

I served for 9 years on a school board before I came here, and we had a mentoring program there which was very beneficial. I think this is a strong amendment to the bill, improves the

bill, and I would ask the support of our colleagues for this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition, although I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment was also written with the committee, has the support of the committee, and I believe will be very beneficial to those multilingual children who need this special help; and I urge support for the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition to this amendment, although I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment was also drafted in consultation with the Committee on Education and the Workforce. We feel it makes the bill stronger. We strongly support it, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act of 2003, with the hope that certain amendments that were made in order will be adopted.

I want to thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey), the author of this bill, and the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), the chairman of the subcommittee. He and I have worked together for a number of years now on higher-education matters. It was a very enjoyable task in this. I would also like to thank the chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner), for his work in the committee.

Mr. Chairman, this legislation reauthorizes title II's teacher- quality programs and makes much-needed improvements to its accountability system. Teacher quality is a critical element to ensure our children succeed academically. This bill makes great strides to improve teacher-preparation programs that create our supply of highly qualified teachers.

Chief of these improvements is a bipartisan amendment accepted at the subcommittee markup creating the Minority Centers of Excellence program. This new program will allow high-quality Historically Black Colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and Tribal colleges to improve teacher preparation and to work with disadvantaged school districts. This program will tap the vast knowledge and skill housed in these institutions to improve teacher preparation, especially for minority teachers.

In addition, the bill's provisions to expand teacher retention and preparation of early childhood teachers are very critical improvements. With added resources for retention, school districts will be more able to keep highly qualified teachers in their districts. With new resources to ensure that we have early childhood teachers, our Nation's youngest children will receive the head start they really need to succeed.

While this legislation represents a good first step, we are missing an opportunity to address some of the most pressing issues facing education. Whether it is the No Child Left Behind Act, IDEA or Pell Grants, the Bush administration and Republican leadership have failed to meet their education funding commitments.

President Bush and the House and Senate appropriations committees have proposed funding, for example, title I at $12.35 billion. That is over $6 billion short of the $18.5 billion which the President signed into law for this year when he signed No Child Left Behind.

The Republican budget resolution promised $2.2 billion in new IDEA funding. The House and Senate appropriations committees have proposed less than half that amount.

In addition, the Pell Grants have been frozen by the House and Senate appropriation committees, despite increasing college costs.

While I really want to reiterate that I will support this legislation, the administration and the Republican Congress are missing an opportunity to meet our education funding commitments.

Basically, and Members have heard me say this before, this is an authorization bill; and it is a good authorization bill. We worked hard on it. But I have always said an authorization bill is like a get-well card, Mr. Chairman. If I have a friend who is ill, I will send my friend a get-well card, which expresses my attitude, how I value my friend, and that is very important. But what my friend really needs is a Blue Cross card to pay the bills.

I think we have to work closer together to make sure there is not such a wide disparity between the levels that are in the authorization bills, the get-well card, and what is in the appropriations bill, the Blue Cross card.

But having said that, I want to say that the authorizing committee did work well together; and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the chairman, was very, very fair to us, and we adopted Democratic amendments in that committee. I think the authorizers have done a good job.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price).

(Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).

(Mr. KIND asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This is a bipartisan bill, and we do our best especially in the field of education when we work in a bipartisan way, and we did that in committee. There was not only civility in committee, but a great deal of enjoyment in writing this bill. This is a good start for the authorization of the remaining titles of the Higher Education Act.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time in opposition, although I am not in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, I do not intend to oppose this amendment. This amendment makes, indeed, important technical and clarifying changes to the bill, and I urge its support.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, as the designee of the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This amendment would expand the bill to allow clinical and mentoring programs as part of the teacher preparation. I believe this amendment is a good addition to the bill, and I would urge its passage.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, as the designee of the gentleman from California (Mr. Baca), I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment will expand the bill to allow teachers to retrain using computer software for bilingual education. I believe this amendment is a good addition to the bill and urge its passage.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 2211, the Ready to Teach Act, which will strengthen teacher training programs to ensure teachers are highly-qualified and ready to teach when they enter the classroom.

Eighteen months ago the President signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law and ever since, States and school districts across the country have been answering the call. The Ready to Teach Act follows the momentum of No Child Left Behind and meets its requirement to place a highly qualified teacher in every classroom--a requirement of great import, as the value of a qualified teacher on a student's ability to learn has been proven, over and over again. H.R. 2211 achieves this by making improvements to the Higher Education Act to help ensure teacher training programs are producing highly qualified teachers to meet the needs of America's students.

All States and nearly all teacher education programs in the country are affected by general accountability provisions in this legislation. Schools receiving Federal funds must report annually on the quality of teacher preparation, including information on the pass rates of their graduates on initial certification assessments. Higher educational institutions enrolling federally-aided students in their teacher preparation programs must report annually, detailing, among other things, the certification pass rates of graduates.

Unfortunately, this data has proven ineffective in measuring the true quality of teacher preparation programs. Current requirements have often been manipulated, leaving data skewed and often irrelevant. For example, if a student fails to pass the State certification exam, upon completion of the institution's program, the school will award them a degree in another field rather than in education. A school will only award students an education degree if that student has passed the state exam. That way, the school will always have a 100 percent pass rate. H.R. 2211 sets forth more useful information. This includes requiring a school to report on all students who have completed 50 percent of the program and requiring an average score of students rather than the pass rates.

As in current law, H.R. 2211 will continue to award State, partnership and teacher recruitment grants. In doing so, H.R. 2211 has evolved with the teaching profession and places updated requirements on these grants.

State grants will be used to increase the advancement technology in the classroom and increase the focus on rigorous academic content knowledge and scientifically based research. States will be given flexibility in identifying innovative methods for teacher preparation programs, such as charter colleges of education to provide an alternative gateway for teachers to become highly qualified.

Partnership grants allow effective partners to join together, combining strengths and resources to train highly qualified teachers and achieve success in the classroom. Among other things, partnership activities will help to ensure that teachers are able to address the needs of students with different learning styles, and receive training in methods of improving student behavior in the classroom.

Finally, teacher recruitment grants will help bring high quality individuals into teacher programs, and ultimately put more highly qualified teachers into classrooms. The Ready to Teach Act places a priority on applicants that will emphasize measures to recruit minorities into the teaching profession, providing a teaching workforce that is both highly qualified and diverse.

We are fortunate in the State of Delaware to have the University of Delaware's Elementary Teacher Education program. In many ways the University of Delaware has already begun to address the need to have a highly qualified teacher in our classrooms. They have been innovative and forward thinking always recognizing the importance of providing their students with a strong academic base as well as a practical experience.

In their freshman year at the University of Delaware, students participate in field experiences in the school setting. Freshmen have the opportunity to observe, tutor, and offer general assistance in the classroom. As sophomores and juniors, the experiences include planning, implementing, and assessing limited instructional units with small groups or an entire class. As seniors, students become engaged in an extended student teaching experience.

Technology is integrated throughout the curriculum and all students will graduate with the skills necessary to utilize technology in their instructional planning. The Elementary Teacher Education program's goal is to prepare teachers who are reflective practitioners serving a diverse community of learners as scholars, problem solvers and partners.

I am committed to ensuring No Child Left Behind is a success for America's children. The Committee and this Congress have been working since passage to ensure other laws in the education arena are aligned with No Child Left Behind. We have accomplished this with IDEA, Head Start and hopefully today with the Ready to Teach Act. I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 2211.