This week’s digest features several stories on how students are gaining real-world experience and building the necessary skills and competencies to prepare them for success in their jobs and careers.

The Alliance for Excellent Education filmed a special edition of Federal Flash that condemns the actions by white supremacists in Charlottesville and urges parents, teachers, and others to talk about Charlottesville in their homes, classrooms, and communities. This blog post includes the video, a transcript of the video, as well as a series of resources that individuals can use to help start conversations about the nation’s dark history with slavery, the dangerous white supremacy movement, and the importance of equity, inclusion, and diversity in America.

This week’s digest highlights the benefits of competency-based learning, personalization, and connecting students to the real world. But looking beyond student learning, how are teachers engaging in deeper learning experiences themselves?

In the past decade, the rate of violent incidents occurring in public schools declined by nearly half, but middle schools and schools that serve mostly students of color still experience higher rates of violence than other schools, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Education (ED).