§ 1161h — Improving College Enrollment By Secondary Schools

(a) From the amounts appropriated under subsection (c), the Secretary shall award a grant to one nonprofit organization described in subsection (b) to enable the nonprofit organization— (1) to make publicly available the year-to-year postsecondary education enrollment rate trends of secondary school students, disaggregated by secondary school, in compliance with section 1232g of this title (commonly known as the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”); (2) to identify not less than 50 urban local educational agencies and five States with significant rural populations, each serving a significant population of low-income students, and to carry out a comprehensive assessment in the agencies and States of the factors known to contribute to improved postsecondary education enrollment rates, which factors shall include— (A) the local educational agency’s and State’s leadership strategies and capacities; (B) the secondary school curriculum and class offerings of the local educational agency and State; (C) the professional development used by the local educational agency and the State to assist teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators in supporting the transition of secondary students to postsecondary education; (D) secondary school student attendance and other factors demonstrated to be associated with enrollment into postsecondary education; (E) the use of data systems by the local educational agency and the State to measure postsecondary education enrollment rates and the incentives in place to motivate the efforts of faculty and students to improve student and schoolwide outcomes; and (F) strategies to mobilize student leaders to build a college-bound culture; and (3) to provide comprehensive services to improve the schoolwide postsecondary education enrollment rates of each of not less than ten local educational agencies and States, with the federally funded portion of each project declining by not less than 20 percent each year beginning in the second year of the comprehensive services, that— (A) participated in the needs assessment described in paragraph (2); and (B) demonstrated a willingness and commitment to improving the postsecondary education enrollment rates of the local educational agency or State, respectively. (b) The recipient of the grant awarded under subsection (a) shall be a nonprofit organization with demonstrated expertise— (1) in increasing schoolwide postsecondary enrollment rates in low-income communities nationwide by providing curriculum, training, and technical assistance to secondary school staff and student peer influencers; and (2) in a postsecondary education transition data management system. (c) There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section such sums as may be necessary for fiscal year 2009 and each of the five succeeding fiscal years.