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Teacher training credits revoked

An Ohio college finds that a Florida program it partnered with was a sham. Hundreds of teachers are affected.

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - A college has revoked nearly 10,000 credits given to teachers after discovering they may not have had proper training from a Florida education program.

Through Otterbein College, 657 teachers received course credit with Move On Toward Education and Training, a Miami-Dade County organization that Florida officials are calling a diploma mill.

A Florida grand jury found no evidence of teachers attending classes, completing assignments or meeting with instructors. Teachers involved in the program have given conflicting accounts of when and where the classes met.

MOTET now is disbanded, and its leader, William McCoggle, has been charged with grand theft and fraud.

Officials at Otterbein, a campus of about 3,000 students, said a former associate dean who administered the program did not follow guidelines in regulating the school's involvement and did not seek proper approval for the program.

In all, 657 teachers, many in the Miami-Dade area, received Otterbein credit through MOTET, allowing them to bump up their salaries, teach new courses or meet Florida's continuing education requirements. MOTET offered certification courses in such subjects as driver's education and physical education.

MOTET split tuition money with the college. Although she was uncertain how much the teachers paid, Otterbein spokeswoman Jennifer Pearce said the college took in about $89,000. That money will be given to a Florida charity geared toward minority education.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]