Alternative journalism

I haven't been comprehensive: I've been concentrating on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) coverage. Let's see what Creative Loafing (CL) has had to say.

The 9 most depressing details in the APS cheating report [CL]

These are awfully long details, but they constitute the core of APS' problem. If you don't want to read the whole 800 pages, read this.

APS cheating report only the first step to recovery [CL]

There's hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for. And everyone knows (always watch out for that phrase) how cash-strapped public schools are. When I hear about APS administration getting bonuses for Adequate Yearly Progress numbers, I remember that every teacher I know has to pay for her own photocopy paper, yes, out of her own pocket, in order to give her students a test.*

Anyone want to dive head-first into the APS crapstorm? Anyone? [CL]

Or, as a normal news outlet would headline it: "Qualifying dates set for special election to fill vacancy on APS board." You can tell Creative Loafing is an edgy alternative paper because its reporters write like bloggers. No, wait, that doesn't work, a lot of reporters write like bloggers. Were I the editor, I might have had the writer point out that the position is open only to residents of the West Side. Which he sorta did, by referring to the post being to represent APS district 2, which is equivalent to City of Atlanta districts 3 and 4, and leaving it up to the reader to figure out how to find a city council district map.

While we're all laughing at what one CL commenter called the "Sopranos wanna-be" attitude of the secretive educators, let me say (as has been observed elsewhere) that the pressure teachers felt to elevate these test numbers by any means necessary did not come from each other.

I'll also say that despite the temptation to think of this incident as Keystone Kops Korruption, those who created this atmosphere were clever enough not to put anything in writing where it might become evidence.
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*   The vast, vast, vast majority of APS employees are women. So sue me.