Afternoon announcements: October 18, 2012

What if Halloween were every day? An Omaha third-grader dresses up as a different historical woman every day and has for over a year. Stella Ehrhart looks into her book of the 100 most influential women in history and chooses a new woman to embody. Her costumes aren’t distracting, and she creates them herself out of what’s in her closet. Some of her creativity is genetics – both of her parents are in the theater industry. Omaha World-Herald

Florida officials are standing by a controversial decision to set different learning goals by race and ethnicity. The measure is an effort to reduce the achievement gap between whites and non-white students and increase reading and math levels. New York Times

Higher education debt has become a big speaking point for President Obama on the campaign trail. He will have more to address and attempt to fix today, with the release of a report that finds that the average student loan debt has increased to $26,500. That’s up from $25,350 the previous year. New York Times

The US Department of Education granted Idaho a No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver, making it the 35th state to receive one. Politics K-12

Finally, some positivity on the education front! Huffington Post writer, (name), argues that the future of education is strong, despite recent polls that indicate Americans’ lack of faith in the system. He references a Napa, California high school that incorporates technology in everything it does as a prime example of schools that are moving forward and increasing learning. Huffington Post