H.R. 1331 — Teacher and School Leader Quality Partnership Grants Act

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Teacher and School Leader Quality Partnership Grants Act.”

This section revises the definitions applicable to Title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965 under 20 U.S.C. § 1021 by adding new terms for blended learning, comprehensive literacy instruction, digital learning, diverse teacher candidates, educator, English learner, evidence-based, and evidence of student learning, and by updating cross-references to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It also narrows and modernizes the eligible partnership definition by removing the requirement that a partnership include a school or department of arts and sciences and by expanding the entities that may participate, including teacher, principal, or school leader organizations; charter schools; psychology and human development departments; comparable teaching and child development departments; and alternative route certification programs.

This section revises the purposes of Title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to expand the scope of educator preparation and professional development from prospective and new teachers to include school leaders, teacher leaders, and other educators. It also adds new purposes to (1) hold teacher preparation programs and school leader preparation programs accountable for preparing effective teachers, principals, school leaders, and other educators; (2) recruit profession-ready individuals, including underrepresented groups and individuals from other occupations such as informal education and youth development fields, into teaching and other educator roles; and (3) meet staffing needs in high-need local educational agencies and high-need schools through close partnerships with educator preparation programs within institutions of higher education.

This section revises the Teacher Quality Partnership grant application requirements under section 202 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1022a) to reflect broader educator preparation priorities. It adds “equitable distribution” to the needs assessment for teachers and principals, expands the program description to cover prospective teachers, school leaders, and new educators, and requires applicants to describe how the program will build strong teaching, leadership, and other professional skills needed to increase learning and academic achievement. It also requires coordination with other teacher, school leader, and other educator preparation or professional development programs, and updates the consistency requirement to cover teacher, school leader, and other educator quality. The section further revises the required description of grant activities by replacing several existing subparagraphs with new requirements that focus on preparing educators to teach students with disabilities and English learners, including training on early identification of disabilities, participation on individualized education program teams under section 614(d)(1)(B) of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and services needed to help those students meet challenging State academic standards. It also requires partnerships to explain how faculty will work with mentor educators and administrators in high-need schools to provide professional development on multi-tiered systems of support, universal design for learning, comprehensive literacy instruction, and the instructional and leadership skills of principals or other school leaders and district superintendents. In addition, it changes references from “scientifically valid” to “evidence-based,” and narrows the grant-use language to programs under subsections (d) and (e), while authorizing use of funds for other educator development programs under subsection (f) based on the needs assessment.

This section revises the Teacher Quality Partnership program under section 203 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1022b) by allowing an eligible partnership to receive an additional grant during a 5-year period if the new grant is used to establish a teacher residency program or a principal or other school leader residency program that was not established with the prior grant, and by expanding the priority for grant funding to institutions of higher education whose teacher education, school leader preparation, or educator development program has a rigorous selection process.

This section revises the required evaluation plan for eligible partnerships applying for grants under this part by requiring “rigorous, comprehensive, and measurable” performance objectives, instead of “strong and measurable” objectives, and by updating the required measures to focus on educators rather than teachers. It changes the retention metric to educator retention in the first 5 years of service, from teacher retention in the first 3 years of a teacher’s career, and expands the certification measure to include, as applicable, pass rates and scaled scores for initial State certification or licensure of teachers or pass rates and average scores on valid and reliable teacher performance assessments. It also revises the workforce measures to track the percentage of profession-ready teachers, principals or other school leaders, and other educators hired by the high-need local educational agency, including the percentage who are members of underrepresented groups, teach high-need academic subject areas such as reading, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computer science, and foreign language, teach in high-need areas such as special education, bilingual education, language instruction educational programs for English language learners, and early childhood education, and teach in high-need schools, disaggregated by elementary and secondary school levels. In addition, it adds, as applicable, measures for the percentage of early childhood education program classes taught by highly competent early childhood educators, the percentage of educators able to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction and to use technology to collect, manage, and analyze data to improve teaching and learning, and the percentage of educators taking school leadership positions who, after 3 years in the role, receive ratings of effective or above in State school leader evaluation and support systems or other comparable indicators of performance.

This section revises the accountability and reporting requirements for teacher preparation programs under 20 U.S.C. § 1022d to cover both teacher preparation and school leader preparation entities and programs. It requires each approved entity that receives Federal assistance, or enrolls students receiving such assistance, to report annually to the State and the public on program outcomes, admissions, clinical preparation, accreditation, and low-performing designations. Specifically, the section: 1. Revises the required annual report card to include, for each teacher or school leader preparation program, pass rates and average scaled scores for State certification or licensure assessments, and permits an entity or State that uses a valid and reliable teacher performance assessment to report the performance assessment pass rate and average score in lieu of the standard assessment data. 2. Adds required entity-level information, including the median and range of grade point averages for admitted students, student enrollment disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender, the number and type of supervised clinical preparation hours required, accreditation status, and whether any program has been designated low-performing under section 207(a). 3. Expands State report card requirements to include school leader preparation programs and teacher performance assessments, and requires disaggregated reporting by subject area, race, ethnicity, and gender, except where disclosure would reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student. 4. Replaces the prior list of State report card items for teacher preparation programs with a broader list covering both teacher and school leader preparation programs, including admission rates, student demographics, supervised clinical preparation, low-performing status, and, for school leader programs, the share of completers placed as principals who are rated effective or above under the State school leader evaluation and support system.

This section revises the teacher preparation program requirements under section 206 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1022e) by striking “limited English proficient” in 2 places and inserting “English learner.” Thus, institutions of higher education that prepare teachers must set annual goals and provide assurances using the updated terminology for students who are not proficient in English.

This section revises the State functions requirements for teacher and school leader preparation programs. It expands the State assessment requirement to apply in order to receive funds under the Higher Education Act of 1965 or title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6601 et seq.), and it requires States to identify both at-risk and low-performing teacher and school leader preparation programs, rather than only low-performing teacher preparation programs. It also requires each State to provide the Secretary and the general public an annual list of low-performing programs and programs at risk of being placed on that list, to report any teacher and school leader preparation program that has closed and the reasons for the closure, and to describe the assessment in the report under section 205(b) (from section 1022d(b)). This section further revises how States determine program performance by requiring consultation with a representative group of community stakeholders, including leaders and faculty of traditional and alternative route teacher and school leader preparation programs, prekindergarten through grade 12 leaders and instructional staff, current candidates in those programs, the State standards board or other appropriate standards body, and other stakeholders identified by the State. It also requires States to consider multiple measures and information reported by teacher preparation entities under section 205, rather than leaving performance levels solely to the State. This section establishes a new reporting and improvement process for at-risk programs. States must report identified programs to the Secretary and the general public, establish a State-determined period of improvement and redesign, provide technical assistance for not longer than 3 years, identify programs as low-performing if they do not sufficiently improve after that assistance, and subject low-performing programs to the termination provisions not later than 1 year after identification. This section revises the termination-of-eligibility rules for teacher and school leader preparation programs projected to close. Such programs remain ineligible for Department-funded professional development activities, may not provide new awards under subpart 9 of part A of title IV, and must provide transitional support, including remedial services if necessary, for students enrolled in the year before closure. It also applies these requirements to both traditional teacher preparation programs and alternative routes to State certification and licensure programs.

This section revises the reporting methods requirement under section 208(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 by striking the reference to “sections 205 and 206” and inserting “section 205.” (Thus, the Secretary’s fair-and-equitable reporting standards would apply only to section 205, rather than to both sections 205 and 206.)

This section establishes an Advisory Committee within the Department of Education to conduct a 3-year feasibility study on elevating the teaching profession and to make recommendations to Congress. The committee must include representatives from 16 categories of stakeholders, including teacher unions, school leader organizations, State and local officials, institutions of higher education, civil rights organizations, organizations representing students with disabilities and English learners, parent organizations, and organizations representing nontraditional pathways into teacher and school leader education. As background, the study is directed to examine State policies and practices governing teacher and school leader preparation, certification, licensure, recruitment, retention, and credential portability across States. It must compile best practices for preparing profession-ready teachers and school leaders, including evidence-based approaches for supporting diverse learners and for pre-service and in-service training, and recommend a comprehensive set of rigorous expectations for State standards to elevate the profession and prepare educators for inclusive educational settings. The committee must submit an interim report not later than 1 year after its first meeting and a final report not later than 3 years after its first meeting. The Secretary of Education must disseminate the study’s findings in an accessible format to stakeholders and, not later than 180 days after enactment, produce an electronically accessible clearinghouse of State certification procedures and best State practices for producing and retaining profession-ready teachers and school leaders.

This section reauthorizes Part A of title II of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which supports teacher quality and professional development programs, through FY2026 (from FY2009) and extends the authorization of appropriations from 2 succeeding fiscal years to 5 succeeding fiscal years. (Thus, the provision lengthens the period during which Congress may appropriate funds for these programs.)