Sport Bikes banner

Teacher Hypocrites (Miami Dade)

2K views 17 replies 7 participants last post by  Alicia 
#1 ·
Reference - Clicky

100 teachers in Miami-Dade landed jobs with fake credentials

When James Majors applied for a teaching job at Miami-Dade County Public Schools in 2002, school district officials took little notice of a remarkable achievement: three degrees in only three months.

Without scrutiny from school officials, no one noticed that Majors, 26, provided fake teaching credentials to the district, and he went on to teach 300 students, according to a Miami-Dade grand jury report issued Monday.

The report raised serious questions about the Miami-Dade school district, where 99 other teachers also found work after providing fake credentials. Neither state education officials nor school district officials conducted a review of the job applicants, the grand jury noted in the report.

Miami-Dade school spokesman Joseph Garcia said the district has improved its screening process since 2002.

"We take teacher qualifications very seriously," Garcia said, noting that the district now examines degree completion dates and transcripts more closely and looks for fraud. He said the school district has asked investigators for the names of the other 99 teachers.

Besides providing academic credentials, teachers must be certified by the state before they can teach in any public school.

Majors' record was not uncovered until he applied for a job with Broward County Schools, the report said.

Authorities later discovered that William McCoggle, a long-time teacher at Palmetto Senior High School, issued fake college credits and transcripts to teachers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties through Moving on Toward Education and Training, authorities said.

The program, which charged teachers $774 for three credits, allowed four teachers to improperly receive more than $345,000 in salaries, officials said.

The grand jury indicted McCoggle, 73, on charges of running an organized scheme to defraud. It indicted Majors on grand theft charges. Neither Majors nor McCoggle could be reached for comment.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said the investigation unveiled a disturbing culture where teachers are willing to cheat to further their careers.

"It's completely unacceptable," Rundle said.

Teachers learned about the program through word of mouth, and showed up at Palmetto Sr. High School on Saturdays to enroll.

While McCoggle, who recently retired after 22 years with the district, claimed to have a number of "adjunct professors," teachers received credits without attending classes, completing homework nor taking a test, authorities said.

"Teachers simply paid money and later received a transcript," the grand jury's report said.

Majors claimed that he received a bachelor's degree from Vernell University and masters and doctoral degrees from Florida State University. Vernell is not an accredited institution, and the timing in which Majors claimed to have earned all three degrees also should also have raised a red flag, the grand jury said.

"Had that been detected," the report said, "it would clearly have alerted the reviewer that something was not right and that further verification was necessary."

Majors was hired for $42,000 a year. He spent 14 months teaching at the Cutler Ridge and Westview middle schools. He failed 22 students at one school.
What is this world coming to? Too many people want to take too many shortcuts! :bitchslap
 
#5 ·
ughh.. I read that today..

what pisses me off is that I BUST MY ASS to get into the stupid Broward School System and because of people like this, it makes us actual (god forbid, GASP) COLLEGE GOERS look bad..

Ive never had such a hard time finding a job.. gdamn... i can get a job anywhere..(with anyone else..) but go figure.. theres a freakin TEACHER SHORTAGE.. and Im CERTIFIED... and I still have a difficult time with Broward County..

ANYWAYS! hehehehe /rant

that is all..
 
#6 ·
Well Ali here is your chance to shine. When all those teachers get fired, there will be plenty of openings.
 
#8 ·
I know someone else (Chonch's wife) has applied and is waiting to hear. Not sure how many schools she applied to. I know they say there is a shortage... well I am sure you want to know where it is...
 
#10 ·
AndromedaSS said:
ughh.. I read that today..

what pisses me off is that I BUST MY ASS to get into the stupid Broward School System and because of people like this, it makes us actual (god forbid, GASP) COLLEGE GOERS look bad..

Ive never had such a hard time finding a job.. gdamn... i can get a job anywhere..(with anyone else..) but go figure.. theres a freakin TEACHER SHORTAGE.. and Im CERTIFIED... and I still have a difficult time with Broward County..

ANYWAYS! hehehehe /rant

that is all..
to really get into teaching, you have to be teaching a critical shortage area. The focus of florida has changed from liberal arts type teacher (not saying thats you) to the three most critical: math, reading, english (and sometimes science). You can thank Jeb for that. (FCAT)
 
#11 ·
Onetrick said:
I know someone else (Chonch's wife) has applied and is waiting to hear. Not sure how many schools she applied to. I know they say there is a shortage... well I am sure you want to know where it is...
shortage always depends on the area you are teaching. For instance, in dade, there is shortage (critical actually) for computer teachers. In broward, you'll be lucky to find a computer teaching job but there isnt a shortage. But all the counties in the state of florida need math and reading.
 
#12 ·
beafer said:
to really get into teaching, you have to be teaching a critical shortage area. The focus of florida has changed from liberal arts type teacher (not saying thats you) to the three most critical: math, reading, english (and sometimes science). You can thank Jeb for that. (FCAT)

Im certified in a critical shortage area.. ESE.. (exceptional student education..) as well as Social Science 6-12, which i dont believe theres a shortage in.. and Im willing to work in a "Superintendent's School" ie, incredibly bad FCAT scores.. Ds and Fs, I believe.. shrug... I PERSONALLY handed out my resume to about 20 different schools yesterday and today... only one seemed to give a shit...

Its a bit frustrating. Oh well..
 
#14 ·
DreadJockey1 said:
I think you were playing hooky 2day
:eek:nfloor

I was not!!

I was driving up from Pines and Cooper City... went to a few schools down there before heading back.. Been out driving around since like.. 9 am...

hehe and it was cool to see you!! (Dread and I were both caging it today and he passed me.. hehehehe)
 
#15 ·
I knew it was one of our people because of the sticker.
lol I had to pass.
that maroon car in front of you kept braking for no reason
 
#16 ·
AndromedaSS said:
Im certified in a critical shortage area.. ESE.. (exceptional student education..) as well as Social Science 6-12, which i dont believe theres a shortage in.. and Im willing to work in a "Superintendent's School" ie, incredibly bad FCAT scores.. Ds and Fs, I believe.. shrug... I PERSONALLY handed out my resume to about 20 different schools yesterday and today... only one seemed to give a shit...

Its a bit frustrating. Oh well..

dam....even with ESE you have a hard time? how much experience you have so far with ESE students?

sucks but the only other alt i see is to move more north.
 
#17 ·
DreadJockey1 said:
I knew it was one of our people because of the sticker.
lol I had to pass.
that maroon car in front of you kept braking for no reason

I was like.. "hm.. blue miata behind me.. GODDDDAMNNNN IT WHY WONT THE CAR IN FRONT OF ME GO ANYWHHEREEERRERRERERREE!??!?!?!?!?!?!? hmm blue miata just honked, wonder why? maybe they hate the guy in front of me just as much as I hate the guy in front of me.. .." then I saw the sticker and was like.. "NO WAY! Its DREAD!" hehehe

:)
 
#18 ·
beafer said:
dam....even with ESE you have a hard time? how much experience you have so far with ESE students?

sucks but the only other alt i see is to move more north.

I applied to St Lucie County Schools and Palm Beach County Schools a couple weeks ago.. still awaiting their responses.. sigh..

I have all of spring semester as far as experience goes with the ESE kids.. (teachers aide in austistic cluster..)

we'll see.. theres always subbing and bahama breeze.. hehe
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top