Dozens of Miami-Dade teachers quit, are fired

County takes a zero tolerance approach to alleged continuing education fraud

By Joydel Trail / Florida Courier

Six teachers in the Miami-Dade school system were fired and twenty-six others resigned, following the discovery of a continuing education credit-buying scandal. The teachers had signed up for the courses with a program that was fraudulent. According to Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the teachers paid money to William McCoggle, a former teacher at Miami's Palmetto Senior High School. McCoggle then sent a portion of the money to East Oklahoma State University, which then sent transcripts to the individuals, who did not complete any academic work towards the certification.

Academic credit was offered in a number of fields, including driver's education, physical education, English and teaching methods. Another 89 teachers who are not in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools also took classes through McCoggle's company. In all, the teachers obtained 1,639 credits in 340 courses in 18 months, according to a report by the Miami-Dade County grand jury that indicated McCoggle.

"These people had a document that was from a college," said Joseph Garcia, chief communications officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools. "These transcripts were indistinguishable from other transcripts and the courses were non-credit bearing." Teachers are required to take such courses every five years in order to retain their teaching licenses. As a means of ensuring the authenticity of certification provided by teachers, Miami-Dade school officials have stepped up their verification practices.

"We've created the Office of Transcript Analysis, which gives added scrutiny to transcripts especially from places that no one has heard of," Garcia said. Garcia also said that the teachers who participated in the fraud did so knowingly. "In the cases we've moved on, not only had these individuals paid for the transcripts but they submitted them," he said. "They used credits knowing that they did no academic work to earn those credits."

Other FL school systems take precautions

Though there have been no reports of such incidents in Seminole County, education officials have strict procedures in place to check certifications. "We confirm teaching certification from the Florida Department of Education," said John Reichert, Executive Director Of Human Resources And Professional Standards for Seminole County schools. "We have a listing of accredited colleges across the United States. Most of these accredited colleges are known. If there is a problem, then we go in and check the master list."

In Volusia County, a similar situation occurred several years ago, with teachers presenting certification from a non-accredited school. According to Larry Lewis, director of screening and hiring services for Volusia County schools, many of these fraudulent institutions set up programs that are closely related to prominent ones. In the Volusia case, Washington State University was simply changed to Washington State College, with the word 'college' in small letters on the transcript.

To prevent these problems in the future Volusia County officials have been taking a closer look at transcripts and other certifications. "We have booklets that list all certified colleges and universities in the United States and we have a couple of people that check that. If we don't catch it, the state Education Department usually does. We also require that all transcripts from schools that are presented are sealed. We do the same thing with foreign degrees. They must be validated in English."