Atlanta's new distinction

Atlanta has a new national distinction, and it comes from a surprising direction.

Ever since the school teachers cheating scandal rocked the Atlanta Public Schools, I had thought this would tarnish Atlanta's image, especially for parents looking to move here and for businesses looking for a new location (schools are important in that decision).

Maybe not.

In yesterday's New York Times is a story about an investigative reporter who has uncovered something similar in the Philadelphia schools: highly questionable sudden improvements on standardized test scores plus excessive erasure marks on the answer sheets.

And the Times wrote:

For places that are serious about exposing cheating, there is a new gold standard: Atlanta. In the bad old days, Atlanta school officials repeatedly investigated themselves and found they had done nothing wrong. Then, last August, the governor decided that, once and for all, he was going to get to the bottom of things, and appointed two former prosecutors to oversee an inquiry.

Sixty of Georgia’s finest criminal investigators spent 10 months on it, and in the end turned up a major cheating scandal involving 178 teachers and principals — 82 of whom confessed — at 44 Atlanta schools, nearly half the district.

Will Pennsylvania do an Atlanta? It’s a big commitment.

Now how's that for turning shame into fame? For once we're being recognized for doing something ahead of the curve.

Ralph

PS: The Times failed to give credit to the AJC for it's thorough investigative reporting that turned up evidence that the governor couldn't ignore. In my opinion, they deserve more credit than he does, although he could have swept it under the rug. So I give him that.