Exercise a Degree of Caution: Check Candidate Credentials

A recent spate of news on diploma mills—phony businesses posing as higher education entities—makes that piece of common knowledge seem profound. Diploma mills claim to offer degrees based on life experience and frequently require little work from participants. They have no accreditation from the state and the degrees they confer are considered “substandard” or “fraudulent” by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

If you think the problem is confined to candidates seeking entry-level jobs, think again. Major university football coaches and corporate CEOs have been caught in the media cross hairs for being dishonest about their educational credentials. And educators themselves aren’t immune. A couple of high-level Texas school administrators have been in the news recently for receiving doctorate degrees from schools reputed to be diploma mills.

In 2005, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott took action against two brothers, Craig and Alton Poe, who operated Texas Southern University, a Dallas-based diploma mill. The two offered degrees based solely on their students’ testimony about skills and experience.

However, there are plenty of other diploma mills to pick up the slack. On its Web site, the Coordinating Board publishes a list of institutions that offer degrees that are of no worth in Texas. Administrators should check this site whenever they have questions about the validity of a candidate’s degree.

It’s one small step that can help administrators to know what they’re getting when they hire someone.