After a stalemate that lasted for nearly two years, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate education committee finally came together to unanimously pass important education legislation with benefits for all students.

Also featured in this week’s Flash are just-released details on proposed education funding numbers for Title I and other selected education programs for fiscal year 2019, and news on immigration and the Supreme Court ruling with major consequences for teacher unions.

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Strap on your boots! This week’s digest dives into a work-based learning program in Vermont that gives students hands-on experience at a goat farm. It also explores what states are doing to support competency-based learning, how to improve assessments, and what students are looking for after they graduate from high school.

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On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order ending his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border, but his order doesn’t mean that the policy of holding families in detention together at the border will end.

This week’s Federal Flash examines the implications of Trump’s executive order, as well as failed efforts in Congress to address immigration crisis and the legal status of individuals in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. It also provides updates on federal education funding and career and technical education.

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Rising temperatures and longer days mean one thing to kids across America: school is out for summer. But as school doors shutter and students return home for summer vacation, one major question looms on the minds of parents and educators. How can we prevent summer learning loss?

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The following blog post was written by Ace Parsi, personalized learning partnership manager at the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).

Education reformers find themselves in a challenging place. On the one hand, in order to overcome prevailing opportunity gaps, we must do more than focus on the narrow issues of literacy and math. Instead, we must ensure that students develop the range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions that jobs of the future will require.  These skills will matter for all students, whether they have disabilities, are English learners, face poverty, experience homelessness, or belong to none of these student groups.

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As a child, Amin Robinson dreamed of becoming a firefighter, but his ambitions changed as he grew older. Today, this member of the Class of 2018 (pictured here in his high school graduation cap and gown) is an aspiring artist with an interest in increasing diversity and representation for people of color. His experiences as a student in the Visual Arts Academy Magnet Program (VAAMP) at Oakland High School in California offered Amin a unique opportunity to engage his passion for art both inside and outside the classroom, boosting his confidence in himself and his future.

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Imagine students maintaining a digital portfolio of their deeper learning skills, keeping track of projects and tasks that have involved critical thinking, collaboration, communication.

This week’s digest features “digital backpacks” full of deeper learning skills for Kentucky students. Also check out a major personalized learning initiative in Fresno, a new deeper learning model in Virginia, and highlights from a recent Hewlett Foundation Twitter Chat.

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Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was back on Capitol Hill last week defending her policies and proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Education. Also last week – there was movement on policy for undocumented students, homeless students, career and technical education, and the confirmation of an additional member of the Secretary’s team at the Department.

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This week we released a report that is the start of a major initiative for the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) to ensure that critical education decisions are driven by science. Working with colleagues, I authored Synapses, Students, and Synergies: Applying the Science of Adolescent Learning to Policy and Practice to point out the major opportunities that exist in the next few years and also urge new ways to work together to maximize impact.

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Twitter chat, much? That’s where all the deeper learning action is these days! From a Hewlett Foundation chat today at 1:30pm ET, to a chat solely focused on assessment for learning earlier this week, the Twittersphere is buzzing with talk of deeper learning.

In addition to info and highlights from these chats, this week’s digest highlights an important podcast episode by NPR’s Teaching Matters on assessments, equity, and the workforce, and the “perfect match” connection between project-based learning and social emotional learning.

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