Education

Harvard University is partnering with the National Football League on a $100 million research project looking into serious health problems among NFL players. The initiative announced in today's Boston Globe will focus on 1,000 retired NFL players to better understand and potentially treat a wide range of physical ailments.

Brown University says it has received its third largest applicant pool in the school’s history.  Brown received close to 29,000 applications for 1,500 slots.

Admission offers will be made in late March.

The university says this is its most diverse pool ever with 38 percent of students identifying themselves as African American, Latino, Native American or Asian.

Sixty-eight percent of applicants are seeking financial aid, a number that has remained unchanged for the last three years.

A group calling itself the Providence Student Union will ask for an end to high stakes testing this week. Starting with the class of 2014, Rhode Island students will not be allowed to graduate unless they get a score of "partially procficent" on the standardized test known as the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP).

A coalition of students, teachers, parents and community leaders will come together Wednesday to ask Governor Lincoln Chafee to end high stakes testing.