From Atlanta comes a deeply disturbing story about a massive cheating scandal to achieve higher scores on standardized tests. In this instance, however, the cheaters weren’t students — they were teachers, principals, and administrators.
In Georgia, as in many other states, student and teacher performance is measured by scores on a standardized test. In this instance, the test is called the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. In recent years, Atlanta schools reported increases in scores on the test, winning accolades for the Atlanta school district and its superintendent, who was named “U.S. Superintendent of the Year” in 2009. Now investigators have unearthed evidence of a massive conspiracy in which teachers, principals, and administrators not only changed answers to achieve better scores, but also worked actively to cover up the cheating. The report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation names 178 teachers and administrators who participated — 82 of whom have confessed to their misdeeds — in a scandal that took place at 44 different schools.
According to the Christian Science Monitor article linked above, reports of teacher cheating have been increasingly commonplace across America. Atlanta’s scholastic scandal is just the largest example of a growing problem. Educational advocates say the reports show that standardized testing is not a panacea, because tying school district funding and individual teacher compensation to higher scores just provides an incentive to cheat. So, they recommend that school districts implement much more involved auditing of the completed standardized tests.
The Atlanta scandal is a black eye for the many dedicated and selfless teachers in America, and it raises a very basic, troubling question for public school parents across the country: What kind of people are teaching my kids?
The most recent analysis of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, released Friday, estimates that the “stimulus” has cost $666 billion and produced between 2.4 million and 3.6 million jobs. The 2.4 million jobs estimate was developed using the “CEA Multiplier Model” and the 3.6 million estimate was based on the “CEA Statistical Projection Approach.” 
We settled on TNT’s Falling Skies almost by default, and it is intriguing enough to keep watching. The show is the story of a hardy band of human resistance fighters in Massachusetts. They are dealing with the aftermath of a devastating alien invasion which saw the regular armed forces wiped out and countless humans massacred. The aliens, nicknamed “skitters,” also have enslaved many children through the use of a harness device that attaches to the spinal cord and allows the aliens to communicate with them. The skitters now are trying to hunt down the remaining humans with the help of mobile fighting devices called “mechs,” while the humans try to regroup in irregular groups of fighters and civilians and figure out how to fight back.
