Next Generation High Schools Act

Next Generation High Schools Act

This bill requires the Department of Education to award competitive, five-year grants to local educational agencies or charter schools that partner with specified institutions and intermediaries to provide high school students with challenging academic and career-related learning opportunities. Applicants must assure that school improvement funds will be allocated to eligible high schools in amounts that are proportionate to those schools' share of low-income students.

"Eligible high schools" are those that: (1) serve a population of students of which at least 65% are from low-income families; (2) have a graduation rate at or below 67%, excepting new high schools; (3) do not receive school improvement funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and (4) are identified by their state as low-performing.

Grantees must use grant funds to:

• develop and implement partnerships to help schools prepare students to apply academic concepts to real world challenges;
• implement an early warning indicator system in eligible high schools and feeder middle schools to identify struggling students;
• offer support and credit recovery opportunities for struggling students at the grantee's secondary schools or in other appropriate settings;
• provide drop-out recovery or re-entry programs;
• offer evidence-based programs and supports related to the transition from middle school to high school; and
• provide high school leaders, staff, students, and families with information concerning graduation requirements, postsecondary admission requirements, the availability of financial assistance, labor markets, and other programs and services to improve the prospects of traditionally underserved students.