Dubious diplomas challenge area school districts
posted by Loki on Sep.2.2008 at 10:44 am
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by Diane D’Amico
The Press of Atlantic City
The first clue came when the applicant for a substitute teaching position submitted a college transcript with stellar grades attached to a cover letter full of errors.
“You look and you think, ‘What kind of college is this?’” Folsom school Superintendent Jean Rishel said. “Then you research it, and it’s a diploma mill. But the transcript looked really good. If there had been some C’s on it, I might not have checked it out as closely.”
Diploma mills have been a thorn in education’s side since the 1980s, and the Internet since has made it possible for anyone to get a degree from any site claiming to be a college. Differentiating between a legitimate online degree and one bought for a few hundred dollars and little work, takes time and research.
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation and other groups have Web sites listing accredited colleges, but they are only effective if they’re used.
In July it was revealed that three top administrators in the Freehold Regional School District, including the superintendent, obtained doctoral degrees from Breyer State University, an unaccredited online program. The district paid the $2,900 tuition and the administrators received $2,500 salary increases.
Lawmakers were outraged. State Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, called for a review of all top administrators for similar payments, and several legislators have said they plan to introduce legislation putting controls on contracts.
State education officials said they will likely add a provision in the new accountability regulations to prohibit administrators from getting any additional money for such degrees. But the state does not require doctoral degrees for certification, so local school boards must be equally vigilant in what they approve.
The state Department of Education licensing code does require that teachers get their bachelor’s degrees and supervisors and administrators get a master’s degree from a regionally accredited college or university.
“The examiners check all applications,” assistant commissioner Jay Doolan said, using the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and other Web sites that are also available to local districts.
Substitute teacher certificates are reviewed only by the county offices of education, but credits also must come from an accredited college.
Robert Higgins, the DOE’s director of licensing, said a handful of applicants are rejected each year for having degrees from unaccredited colleges, but it is not a huge problem. He said county officials are getting more vigilant as well, and the state has gotten appeals from people who were denied renewals of their substitute certificates.