Afternoon announcements: November 5, 2012

New York City schools reopened today after Hurricane Sandy, and the picture on the front of this story – of a music teacher hugging individual students as they come back to school, says it all. New York Times

It’s education in the election news all day long today. Obama and Romney lay out their views on education one final time in this video. Did they answer all your platform questions? Washington Post

Election is a hot topic issue in statewide ballots, not just in the federal election. Here is a breakdown of state-by-state ballot measures and initiatives to help you decide how you’ll vote. National Conference of State Legislatures

George Lucas, Star Wars director, will donate $4 billion to an education foundation. The funds come from the sale of Lucasfilm Ltd. to Disney. Huffington Post

Jeb Bush defends Indiana’s new grading system. He argues in a new opinion column that “by adopting an A-F school grading system last year, Indiana took an important step in providing families with clear and concise information regarding student performance at their schools.” He says the state deserves credit. Indy Star

There are other ways to assess student growth and mastery of skills and concepts than traditional tests, Monty Neill, executive director of the non-profit National Center for Fair & Open Testing, known as FairTest, writes. He references one alternative by the New York Performance Standards Consortium that uses performance-based assessments. Washington Post