COMING UP ON "ROCK CENTER WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS"

Monday, November 28 at 10p/9c

It's a brutal waiting game more and more American families have to endure. The "newly poor," -- middle- and working-class families who've been driven below the poverty line by a terrible economy -- are increasingly forced to rely on government food assistance to make ends meet. That help comes at the beginning of each month, and for many it's a real struggle to make it last. Midnight food runs on the first of the month � with hungry children waiting at home - have become so common they've changed the way Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, does business. Kate Snow reports.

When scores on standardized tests went up year after year in Atlanta public schools, system chief Dr. Beverly Hall got much of the credit. But this past July, investigators appointed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, issued the results of a 10-month probe into alleged test tampering that unveiled the largest cheating scandal ever in American schools. It wasn't students who were doing the cheating...it was teachers and administrators! Harry Smith reports.

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David Corvo is the senior executive producer, Rome Hartman is the executive producer and Brian Williams is the anchor and managing editor of �Rock Center with Brian Williams� (Mondays at 10p/9C). Follow us at RockCenterNBC.com, facebook.com/rockcenterNBC and @rockcenterNBC.