Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 118.djvu/161

 118 STAT. 131 PUBLIC LAW 108–199—JAN. 23, 2004 amendment of the United States Constitution, necessitate any change in the participating school’s teaching mission, require any participating school to remove religious art, icons, scrip tures, or other symbols, or preclude any participating school from retaining religious terms in its name, selecting its board members on a religious basis, or including religious references in its mission statements and other chartering or governing documents. (e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—A scholarship (or any other form of support provided to parents of eligible students) under this title shall be considered assistance to the student and shall not be considered assistance to the school that enrolls the eligible student. The amount of any scholarship (or other form of support provided to parents of an eligible student) under this title shall not be treated as income of the parents for purposes of Federal tax laws or for determining eligibility for any other Federal pro gram. SEC. 309. EVALUATIONS. (a) IN GENERAL.— (1) DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY AND THE MAYOR.—The Sec retary and the Mayor of the District of Columbia shall jointly select an independent entity to evaluate annually the perform ance of students who received scholarships under the 5 year program under this title, and shall make the evaluations public in accordance with subsection (c). (2) DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY.—The Secretary, through a grant, contract, or cooperative agreement, shall— (A) ensure that the evaluation is conducted using the strongest possible research design for determining the effectiveness of the programs funded under this title that addresses the issues described in paragraph (4); and (B) disseminate information on the impact of the pro grams in increasing the student academic achievement of participating students, and on the impact of the programs on students and schools in the District of Columbia. (3) DUTIES OF THE INDEPENDENT ENTITY.—The independent entity shall— (A) measure the academic achievement of all partici pating eligible students; (B) use the same grade appropriate measurement every school year to assess participating eligible students as the measurement used by the District of Columbia Public Schools to assess District of Columbia Public School stu dents in the first year of the program; and (C) work with the eligible entities to ensure that the parents of each student who applies for a scholarship under this title (regardless of whether the student receives the scholarship) and the parents of each student participating in the scholarship program under this title, agree that the student will participate in the measurements given annually by the independent entity for the period for which the student applied for or received the scholarship, respec tively. (4) ISSUES TO BE EVALUATED.—The issues to be evaluated include the following:

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