We have a short flash for you today with an update on a new resource with information on racial inequities in schools, as well as the Department of Education’s process to implement the recently reauthorized Carl D Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

It’s tempting to jump right to advocating for all students to have deeper learning experiences. But as our friends at the Buck Institute for Education remind us, there are other basic needs that must be met for students to learn deeply.

This digest highlights what else students need to learn deeply. It also shares how to measure social-emotional learning, why adolescence is a prime time for deeper learning skills, and a call for workshop proposals for Deeper Learning 2019.

March for Our Lives. DREAMers. Black Lives Matter. Young people are lifting up their voices and demanding a seat at the table to discuss issues of immigration, gun violence, and inequality that permeate their lives. These are problems that students carry from their homes to their schools each day.

As an educator or school leader, student activism may lead to difficult questions. Should you support your students when they stand up for change? What if your beliefs differ from theirs, or you have trouble relating to their experiences? If you want to support them, what’s an appropriate way to do so?

What skills do students need to be considered “life ready?” For Virginia high school graduates, they may sound familiar: “critical and creative thinkers, excellent communicators and collaborative and civic-minded citizens.” So what steps can states take to give their students opportunities for deeper learning?

This digest features stories of deeper learning in Virginia, the importance of collaboration in personalized learning, some key lessons in competency-based education and an upcoming event in Tennessee.

Ever wonder why teenagers are so quick to adopt Instagram, Snapchat, and other forms of social media? Or take up X Games sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding? A new report by the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed) explains how changes in the brain make adolescents more likely to be influenced by their peers, take risks, and even become disengaged in school as their motivations change. It also includes advice and guidance for educators, parents, and policymakers.

We have new information on the timeline for implementing the new Perkins law, plus updates on ESSA, innovative assessments, and new data on low-graduation rate high schools that can fall through the cracks of state accountability systems.

If you regularly interact with adolescents, whether as a parent, educator, or community member, you’ve likely noticed that there are factors that set teens apart from children of other ages. But did you know that adolescence is the second most active time of neurodevelopment in a human’s life? By better understanding what’s going on developmentally with adolescent students, educators can create learning environments that capitalize on the unique opportunities that adolescence offers.

Is it possible to test how creative someone is? There are quite a few tests on the internet that claim to do so. Of course, there are also “tests” on the internet than can tell you which Star Wars character you are. We know the people designing those tests are creative, but what about your regular American student?

This week’s Deeper Learning Digest covers a new creativity test designed for U.S. fifteen-year-olds and their international peers. It will also explain why fifteen-year-olds and other adolescents are hard-wired to adopt social media and take up extreme sports such as skateboarding and snowboarding. Finally, it will examine the common, the controversial, and why March—and not December—could be the most wonderful time of the year.

Are states shirking their responsibilities around two of the Every Student Succeeds Act’s (ESSA) most important provisions for historically underserved groups of students? A new analysis says yes. Federal Flash delves into the findings, plus a Senate education committee hearing on ESSA implementation and the latest on the bill funding the U.S. Department of Education. 

The nation’s main education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), is a civil rights law that ensures states provide all children with equal access to a high-quality education—provided states carry out the law faithfully. Unfortunately, many states are shirking their responsibilities around two of the law’s most important provisions for historically underserved groups of students, according to a new analysis by the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed). All4Ed finds that twelve states do not include subgroups of students in school ratings, and sixteen states risk under-identifying schools with consistently underperforming student subgroups for targeted support. Is your state one of them?