"The names of all employees paid bonuses..."

Despite cheating scandals, testing and teaching are not at odds [Washington Post]
The Atlanta cheating scandal has been described as the worst known incident of systemic cheating, so it is worth noting that even there investigators found cheating in 44 out of 2,232 schools in Georgia.

They were only looking for cheating in 56 schools. They found it in 44. What if 4:5 is representative of the rest of the state? (The same investigators are now looking in Dougherty County.) Who's responsible for this misleading piece of... Oh, no. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education! We're in deep trouble if SecEd is trying to cover for us.

Well, maybe I should be optimistic. Maybe he isn't trying to cover for us. Maybe he's just... stupid? Oh, I feel so much better now.

Fulton grand jury subpoenas APS records [ajc]
A Fulton County grand jury has subpoenaed Atlanta Public Schools, seeking among other things the names of all employees paid bonuses for improved student test scores, as well as a list of those disciplined since 1999.
...Another point seeks a list of all teachers, principals and administrators “fired transferred or demoted since 1999, along with reasons for their status change.” It previously has been reported that employees who reported test cheating risked retaliation by school administrators.

Bring it on! Let the sun shine in! Hey, Grand Jury? Better also look into who they chose to replace "disciplined" employees. Ah, it's a grand new day!

When Teachers Cheat, What About The Kids? [npr]
What [previous Governor] Sonny Perdue did after just another one of these blue ribbon commissions that produced nothing is he said he wanted to get to the bottom of it. And he appointed three people. And I think this was the key.
Michael Bowers was a former attorney general in the state or about 15 years, so - Robert Wilson, who was the DA for DeKalb County for about 12 or 14 years, and Richard Hyde, you know, really a great investigator. And he basically said - left them alone. He said I'm not going to read the report ahead of time. I promise you I'll give you the manpower you want, you go do and what you need.
And they spent 10 months, and by the time they were done, they had about 60 or 70 investigators working with them and over 100 people altogether.

Mark the calendar, I'm going to compliment NPR. This is a very, very, good interview. It summarizes the story for anyone new to it (there might be some), it explains how the cheating was done (fairly ineptly, as it turned out, but it was in everyone's interest to cover it up), and it explains why the story is a big deal (the sheer scope and effrontery of it).