WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Cheating Scandal Goes National: “The cheating scandals in Atlanta and Long Island that rocked the educational establishment last year appear to be spreading. In the past, the tendency has been to view these scandals as isolated incidents—examples of moral failures on the part of individual teachers or school districts. A new study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, refutes this view—the problem of cheating is much more serious and widespread than previously thought. . . . This speaks to a serious failure, both moral and systemic, in our education system. The moral issues are obvious—teachers face many difficulties in their jobs, but there is absolutely no excuse for fabricating test scores and lying about student’s achievements. The widely distributed nature of these allegations shows that this is a serious moral problem and not simply the work of a few bad apples. Yet perhaps more serious is what this shows about the weakness of the big box model in American education.”