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Originally posted by Hermotimus
I've been trying to help a friend of mine in the UK who's hoping to move to Texas to teach. To do this, he's seeking certification from the state agency responsible, and they (and, directly, college-level potential employers) need an evaluation of his education credentials. He contacted an evaluations agency with a link provided on the state agency website, and is just having enormous problems with them.

First, he gathered all the needed documents; the application and website said attested or notarized copies were acceptable, gave the address to mail them or bring them in person. He spent a day and upwards of £35 getting them notarized, sent them off.

E-mail a week later: no good, two of the documents must be sent DIRECTLY from the university - if he's had them in his possession, they're no good (no mention of this in the original application instructions). So he spends another half-day going by two departments at his old university to have them send the documents directly. This in early December.

Time passes.

At the beginning of March, my friend contacted the agency to see what the status is, and they inform him they never received either of the documents sent directly from the university. (The person he spoke with also at first said they hadn't received his A-Levels either, then discovered she was mistake and did have the A-Levels).

Hard to believe two different departments would both fail to send off the documents, but my friend once again went to the departments, and both departments had copies of the cover letters and documents at hand - they had been sent. The documents were re-sent to the agency.

More time passes, and he doesn't hear from them - no confirmation they've received the documents, no invoice saying please pay the balance so we can start the evaluation. Because he usually got a recording when he phoned the place and because of the time-lag, I offered to phone them for him. It took me three or four phone calls (to the answering machine) over more than a week before I got a call back - only to be told my friend would have to fax them an authorization for them to speak to me (another day's delay).

That brings us up to today, when we found that the agency did have the original set of documents mailed direct from university, has had them since early December!

The agency thought they didn't have the documents sent by a third party, so they did nothing about the evaluations, nor did they make any effort to get the missing documents; instead, they just sat on the case for almost three months. No e-mail reminder - no call, no letter, no request to the university directly saying, 'Hey, we need these documents!' Presumably, if we hadn't both been calling them repeatedly to have them pull the file, they still would be sitting on it.

And there's not the slightest indication of contrition or even acknowledgement they've been the slightest bit remiss in handling things. When I spoke to someone at the agency this evening, I asked how long the evaluation would take (once they receive the balance of payment), and suggested that, given they're inaction caused several months' delay, they might rush things a bit - and was told we could order rush service, for a seventy-five percent premium!

So, that's the first major reservation we have about this agency. The second is that my friend's ability to teach at college level depends upon an explanation of what's entailed in his PGC in Education as compared to an MA. No one has been able to explain what the evaluation they're providing really entails, and it sounds like it won't do anything more than say 'Has a BA; doesn't have an MA,' which is frankly useless for most of my friend's need. The evaluation, as I understand it, is released directly to the other boards and schools he specified; so an inept evaluation can't just be discarded by my friend if it's unsuitable.

So there's a reluctance to go ahead and pay the balance of nearly two hundred dollars to these people, when there's no clear explanation of what he's going to get for the money, when he'll get it, and their conduct up to this point has been lax, to put it very mildly.

But there's also a reluctance to start over, both because of yet more delay, and also because they've required he send originals of some of his documents, and he is really concerned that if he cancels his business with them the agency will just throw away these documents. My friend is a bit reluctant to read the people at the agency the riot act, for exactly that fear that they will destroy papers he needs back; but neither of the people we've spoken with yet seem to have any authority beyond reciting their policies and ignoring their cock-up.

So... should he write off the money and time invested in these idiots and start over with another agency? Or should he plunge ahead with this one and hope for the best?

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Originally posted by Muswell Hill
I teach evening classes at my local tech college. I don't have a PGCE and a formal course in 'education' is not required to teach 18+ students in the US. What is required is study beyond a Bachelors degree, the so called "Graduate hours". These are courses taken after an undergraduate degree and are required by most states.
I personally wouldn't waste any more money with that agency. Deal directly with the college and find out exactly what THEY require in terms of entry requirements for the job then maybe consider gettinga degree 'evaluation by a company such as WES: www.wes.com or .org

It seems you are just getting a lot of run around. Also do you have an offer of a job yet? If not this might be a fruitless endevour.

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