Last summer it was the cheating scandal that “haunts” Atlanta’s schools chief, as reports of widespread efforts by teachers to change test scores mounted.

This morning, according to NPR, it’s not only still haunting Beverly Hall, it’s at her front door, as the Governor, the District Attorney, and the regional accrediting agency are all piling on.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, says NPR’s Kathy Lohr, has found “numerous school employees” admitting to the cheating.

The case took an “ominous turn” last week, as the Journal-Constitution reported, when the Fulton county DA named two special investigators to pursue possible criminal action against the wayward teachers.  And this week the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools sent a team to the Big Peach to look into what SACS’  CEO told NPR were “substantive and significant systemic problems.”

And, of course, we get the pushback. A group of black ministers, according to Lohr, is suggesting that investigators are “unfairly targeting” teachers who “caved in to pressure to cheat because of the federal education standards they must meet.”

My guess is that Atlanta may not be alone on that score, but this is a story that, unfortunately, promises to get bigger not smaller.

–Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow