Today’s Federal Flash offers our crystal ball into 2020 and covers what you may have missed over the holidays, including a debate on education with Democratic presidential candidates, a deal on federal spending for fiscal year 2020, and policy expanding trauma support services passed in the House.

What happens when students become their own teachers and take control of their learning?

Today’s digest highlights an elementary school in Hawaii that is teaching students how to take an active role in their own learning, takeaways from a webinar on scaling up deeper learning approaches in schools, how to build a skilled workforce in Colorado, a focus on equity at Big Picture Schools, and registration for the PBL World conference. 

Adolescence is an important period when young people examine who they are, who they want to be, and how they want to impact their communities and society. This process of exploration allows young people to shape their overarching self-concept and motivates them to pursue learning opportunities that align with their personal goals.

Building community partnerships (one of the seven gears in the Future Ready Framework) has been instrumental in supporting Bristol Township School District’s transition to student-centered learning.  Through partnerships with Digital Promise—a Future Ready Schools® (FRS) founding partner—and the Verizon Foundation, Bristol Township launched a one-to-one student-to-device initiative at its two middle schools in 2015. Now, through a partnership with T-Mobile, the district is poised to expand the one-to-one initiative to its high school in January 2020 and its three elementary schools next school year.  

Too often people think stereotypically about the period of adolescence as a time of vulnerability, risks, and problems. You may even be guilty of this. How often have you participated in or overheard conversations between parents that sound something like “my daughter is headed to middle school next year” and the response is “yikes, good luck!”?

Beginning at 9:45 a.m. (ET) on December 14, MSNBC is hosting a public education forum for eight of the Democratic presidential candidates: Michael Bennet, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren.

The Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) has prepared a series of education recommendations that every presidential candidate, including President Donald Trump, should consider to ensure all children have equitable opportunities to thrive and be well prepared to assume a productive role in an increasingly global economy. The future of our country rests on what we offer to our students and our actions tell our students what it is we value.

Federal Flash covers federal funding for historically black colleges; the impact of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies on children; international test results; and a debate on education with Democratic presidential candidates.

One of the most important skills to master in adolescence is balancing risks and rewards. In this regard, human beings are like many other mammals. A time arrives when adolescents must go out and explore, learn to survive, and establish their own relationships beyond their families. The mindset and motivations that teens bring to these challenges play a key role in how they fair.

Are work experiences as important to career preparation as school?

Today’s digest highlights schools and networks that are bringing work experiences to high school students, how investing in African American and Latino students would help local communities and economies, one teacher’s perspective on the importance of community partnerships, and an upcoming deeper learning webinar that can’t be missed.

U.S. fifteen-year-olds ranked 8th in reading, 11th in science, and 30th in math according to the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), released on December 3. Their performance placed U.S. teenagers above the international average in reading and science, below it in math, and in roughly the same spot from the previous assessment three years ago in all three subjects.