Afternoon Announcements: NYC Teachers Score High with New Teacher Evaluation System

Nine out of 10 New York City teachers received one of the top two rankings in the first year of a new evaluation system that was hailed as a better way of assessing how they perform, according to figures released on Tuesday. Although very few teachers in the city were deemed not to be up to standards, state officials and education experts said the city appeared to be doing a better job of evaluating its teachers than the rest of New York State. The New York Times

The Oakland Unified School District is at the forefront of a new approach to school misconduct and discipline. Instead of suspending or expelling students who get into fights or act out, ‘restorative justice’ seeks to resolve conflicts and build school community through talking and group dialogue. NPR

Minneapolis schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson is stepping down in early 2015, as the school district wrestles with persistent issues like achievement gaps between racial groups. Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal

A U.S. district judge on Tuesday dismissed an 18-year-old special-education lawsuit against the D.C. public school system, ending judicial oversight of how school administrators respond to families awaiting services for students with disabilities. The Washington Post

In New York City, officials have found that roughly one in five students misses about a month or more of school each year, a risk factor that has been linked to lower test scores and higher dropout rates. Chalkbeat NY

The D.C. State Board of Education will consider voting on revised proposed regulations Wednesday that would dramatically change the way students can earn high school credit and earn a diploma in the District, regulations that are still under public review. The Washington Post

In Pennsylvania, some Mars High School teachers and administrators are pressing for YouTube to be unblocked from student computers. The current setup blocks the popular video-streaming website from the laptop computers that the district provides each student to take home. eSchoolNews

A new interactive approach to technology used to engage students allows a class to be taught in up to 10 places at once with high-definition, real-time, interactive video. eSchoolNews