Yahoo! News: Education News

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• Virginia's Sweet Briar to close, part of drop in U.S. women's colleges
• Computerized school testing off to a rocky start in Florida
• America's Kids Are Getting More Diverse, but Its Teachers Aren't
• How New ABLE Accounts Will Help Americans With Disabilities
• Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is upgrading your mom's basement to 16-bit
• Ex-principal 'sorry' for sex abuse at elite Australian school

Virginia's Sweet Briar to close, part of drop in U.S. women's colleges Posted: 03 Mar 2015 02:33 PM PST By Gary Robertson RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - Virginia's cash-strapped Sweet Briar College will close at the end of the summer, administrators said on Tuesday, part of a sharp decline in the number of U.S. women's schools. The 114-year-old school near Lynchburg is closing because of "insurmountable financial challenges," President James Jones said. Sweet Briar's closure is part of a rapid decline in the number of women's colleges. The Women's College Coalition website says that in 1960 there were 230 women's schools, but by 2014 that number had shrunk to 47.

Computerized school testing off to a rocky start in Florida Posted: 03 Mar 2015 01:17 PM PST By Zachary Fagenson MIAMI (Reuters) - Newly computerized state tests were suspended on Tuesday in some of Florida's largest public school districts after students across the state struggled with faulty software. The 60-to-90-minute exams are a Florida version of the controversial Common Core standards that set national benchmarks for student performance. About half of Florida's school districts reported problems with online testing on Monday, according Florida Department of Education Spokeswoman Meghan Collins. Miami-Dade County Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Marie Izquierdo called the Florida State Assessment tests on Monday an "epic fail" on Twitter, blaming the state for hastily rolling out an unproven computerized testing system.

America's Kids Are Getting More Diverse, but Its Teachers Aren't Posted: 03 Mar 2015 01:06 PM PST After decades of neglect, the lack of diversity in the teaching ranks is on the education agenda thanks to a Colorado grade-school student who was looking for a role model. While the diversity of the nation's public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasn't kept pace—despite state and federal programs designed to draw more minorities into the profession. The issue surfaced last year in the Rocky Mountain State when the Colorado legislature passed Aliyah's Law, named after Aliyah Cook, an African American middle school student who told lawmakers her school had no minority teachers—and it hurt. Statistics back her up: Last year, a Center for American Progress survey showed 82 percent of all public school teachers nationwide are white.

How New ABLE Accounts Will Help Americans With Disabilities Posted: 03 Mar 2015 09:06 AM PST Americans with disabilities and their families often face a myriad of financial challenges, but they will soon have a new financial vehicle allowing them to save for expenses and enjoy tax-free growth similar to 529 college savings accounts. Congress passed the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act on the final hour of the final day of Congress in December, creating a new type of tax-advantaged account called an ABLE account or a 529A. The National Down Syndrome Society estimates that the accounts will benefit roughly 5.8 million individuals and families. "As a country, we've basically said that we value saving for higher education using a 529 plan, but we don't value saving for the basic needs that are connected to a disability," says Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is upgrading your mom's basement to 16-bit Posted: 03 Mar 2015 09:00 AM PST Knights of Pen & Paper 2 was both announced and given a release date at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. On May 14, senior mobile producer Florian Schwarzer said, players will be able to take up the next campaign of the tongue-in-cheek game on Android, iOS, Linux, Mac and PC devices. Players take on the role of a party of high-school students sitting in a basement playing a tabletop role-playing game.

Ex-principal 'sorry' for sex abuse at elite Australian school Posted: 02 Mar 2015 08:27 PM PST A former headmaster at one of Australia's most prestigious private schools on Tuesday apologised after revelations that boys were groomed for sex by paedophile teachers while he was in charge. Knox Grammar in Sydney, whose ex-pupils include the late former prime minister Gough Whitlam and Hollywood star Hugh Jackman, has been the focus in recent days of a national enquiry into institutional responses to child abuse. The royal commission has heard disturbing claims of abuse at Knox which allegedly happened between the 1970s and 2012, with one ex-student saying the school harboured "a large paedophile cohort". Ian Paterson was the principal for 30 years until 1998 and it is alleged that he failed to tell police about incidents of abuse and provided references for teachers later charged with sex offences.

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