FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 p.m., August 31, 2005

CONTACT: Joseph Garcia
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
305-995-1126

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS BEGINS INVESTIGATION
OF 106 EMPLOYEES ACCUSED OF USING BOGUS ACADEMIC CREDITS

SUPERINTENDENT EXTENDS REVIEW
BEYOND FINDINGS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY GRAND JURY

MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has begun investigations of 106 teachers and other employees suspected of using fraudulently obtained college credits to recertify their state teaching certificates or get specialized teaching endorsements, Superintendent Rudolph F. “Rudy” Crew announced Wednesday.  The employees may be fired if allegations against them are substantiated.

Dr. Crew initiated the disciplinary reviews after the State Attorney’s Office agreed to turn over evidence, which prosecutors said includes six sworn statements from teachers who described paying to obtain academic credits without undertaking any class work to earn them. On Monday, prosecutors approved the photocopying of the documents by M-DCPS, more than two months after Dr. Crew asked for evidence from the District’s Office of Inspector General.

Last month, the Miami-Dade County Grand Jury reported on an arrangement between Eastern Oklahoma State College and a Florida venture called Move On Through Education and Training (MOTET) that it alleged allowed teachers to get bogus academic credits that were being passed on to the Florida Department of Education and M-DCPS for recertification or endorsement applications. A former teacher, William McCoggle, was indicted as a result, and the documents given to the District were released because they have been given to his defense attorney.

“As an educational enterprise, we will not tolerate people who devalue learning by using fraud to avoid it themselves,” Dr. Crew said Wednesday.  “Our standard is clear cut and inviolable – a highly qualified teacher in every classroom.  We expect professional educators to seek out every opportunity to improve their teaching practices.”

Dr. Crew has asked the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) to partner with M-DCPS in investigating the 106 employees.  FLDOE issues teaching certifications and endorsements; in each case, the teachers still hold valid Florida teaching credentials.  A review of M-DCPS files has found that, in most cases, the teachers
suspected of paying MOTET for credits did not submit transcripts to the District, but rather directly to the state department. Thus far, FLDOE has given some teachers one year to retake courses for which they received Eastern Oklahoma State credits.

In addition, Dr. Crew has contacted four other higher education institutions believed to have had deals with MOTET.  Those schools are:

  • Bethel College of McKenzie, Tennessee
  • Otterbein College of Westerville, Ohio
  • Phillips University of Enid, Oklahoma
  • St. Gregory’s University of Shawnee, Oklahoma

“We believe there may be several hundred more teachers who were involved in MOTET’s scheme over the years,” Dr. Crew said.  “Given the difficulty the District has had in obtaining evidence with which to build an appropriate and viable disciplinary case based on the Grand Jury’s initial report, we cannot afford to wait for others to investigate.”

The District was informed on June 21 that more than 100 teachers may have received college credits through MOTET. On June 22, Dr. Crew wrote to the District’s independent Office of the Inspector General for information with which to begin disciplinary actions against 15 teachers initially identified by that office as having dealt with MOTET and any other teachers that were discovered subsequently.  The Office of the Inspector General had been investigating the matter since May 2004, and provided information for the Grand Jury report issued on July 18.

Despite more than a year of investigation, the Office of Inspector General has provided only limited information to the District about employees who obtained Eastern Oklahoma State credits through MOTET.  While the Grand Jury’s investigative report makes reference to McCoggle’s “relationships with a number of educational institutions,” none of those institutions were named – including Eastern Oklahoma State.

In an October 2004 memo to Dr. Crew, the Office of the Inspector General named 14 teachers whose driver’s education teaching endorsement was in question. That memo named Eastern Oklahoma State and the other four institutions. Only two of the 14 were alleged to have obtained Eastern Oklahoma State credits.

In April, the Office of the Inspector General indicated in another memo that it had confirmed that the 14 teachers’ driver’s education endorsements were not valid. Dr. Crew moved immediately to remove those teachers from driver’s education assignments, despite the fact that all of them still hold valid Florida endorsements as driver’s education instructors.

“While it will involve additional cost to the taxpayers, it is clear that the District must move forward to re-investigate these concerns reviewed by the Office of the Inspector General and the Grand Jury,” Dr. Crew said. “The picture is too scattered and the hard facts too sporadic for the District to move effectively against employees who have skirted the rules, which has been our aim all along.”

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05-LJG-045

Click here for TIMELINE OF INVESTIGATION

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