Amy Robertson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Amy Robertson. (Twitter)

A high school principal in Pittsburg, Kansas, was forced to resign after journalists from the school’s student newspaper investigated her background and discovered problems with her credentials.

On Tuesday night, newly hired principal Amy Robertson resigned from the $93,000-per-year job, after the discovery that she received her master’s and doctoral degrees from Corllins University, an unaccredited school that’s been described as a diploma mill. These allegations first came to light in Pittsburg High School’s student newspaper, the Booster Redux.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Students Discovered Most of the Information Through Simple Online Searches

The Booster Redux student newspaper scoop exposing Robertson’s false credentials (Screenshot from Pittsburgdragonactivities.com)

Trina Paul, a Pittsburg High School senior and editor of the Booster Redux, told the Kansas City Star that the newspaper staff investigated Robertson because “She was going to be the head of our school, and we wanted be assured that she was qualified and had the proper credentials. We stumbled on some things that most might not consider legitimate credentials.”

When Booster Redux staffers learned their new principal had two advanced degrees from Corllins University, they typed the school’s name into a search engine and found multiple articles claiming the school was a diploma mill. Booster Redux staffer and high school junior Maddie Baden said the news staff dug deeper into Robertson’s background after a search for her name brought up multiple articles published by Gulf News (an English-language newspaper in the United Arab Emirates).

One such article, from September 2012, says that Dubai’s education authority suspended the license of the Dubai American Scientific School for violating various regulatory requirements. The story also says that “When contacted, Dr Amy Robertson, the principal of the school refused to comment.”

The Dubai American Scientific School received consistently “unsatisfactory” ratings from 2008 through 2012, and was shut down in 2013.

2. Amy Robertson Initially Dismissed Concerns Over Her Credentials

Poorly written blurb on the official Corllins University Facebook page (Screenshot from Facebook)

Last week, when the Kansas City Star first contacted Robertson about the credential allegations, she initially dismissed them as irrelevant. “The current status of Corllins University is not relevant because when I received my MA in 1994 and my PhD in 2010, there was no issue,” she said in an email sent to the Star.

She also told the Star: “ All three of my degrees have been authenticated by the US government,” and “I have no comment in response to the questions posed by PHS students regarding my credentials because their concerns are not based on facts.”

Last week, when questions about Robertson’s credentials first arose, school superintendent Destry Brown told the paper the school board “100 percent supported the Robertson hire.” By Tuesday night, after Robertson’s resignation, Brown expressed regret over the matter. “I do feel it is my responsibility. As superintendent I feel like I let the teachers and the students down. I publicly admit that.”

3. Corllins’ Own Online Presence is Inconsistent

Sample of a misspelled and non-working link on the Corllins University website. (Screenshot from Corluni.org)

Corllins’ Facebook page, which was last updated in June 2012, says the school is a “College & University in Washington, District of Columbia.” The page includes a school web address with a .com ending – though clicking on that link brings up a Facebook-generated “Link Blocked” warning: “We believe the link you are trying to visit is malicious. For your safety, we have blocked it.”

Corllins’ Facebook page says the school has been recognized as “the leading on-line [sic] distance-learning pro” [sic].

Typing the school’s name into a search engine brings up a website with a .org address – a website last updated in 2015. That website, at first glance, makes Corllins look like a standard residential school – the “Students [sic] Life” page boasts of such amenities as “Wi-Fi internet connexion” [sic] and “Class sizes of between 12 and 18 students guarantee success and help promote interaction, the establishment of a common goal and active participation.”

However, many of the links on that website don’t work — the “Students Life” offers apparent subcategories such as “On-Campus Living,” “Code of Conduct” and other standard-looking options. None of those options actually work. The website is also riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, such as the non-working “Colleges & Universitys” [sic] link under “Academics.”

Most legitimate school websites have addresses with a .edu ending.

4. California Has No Record of Corllins University

Impressive-looking buildings atop the Corllins University Facebook page. (Screenshot from Facebook)

The Pittsburg Morning-Sun reported Wednesday that Joyia Emard, an information officer with California’s Department of Consumer Affairs, confirmed that the state has no record of Corllins University operating as an accredited or approved educational institution in that state.

“The California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education is unable to locate any information on Corllins University ever obtaining or requesting approval in California,” Emard said. “We researched records from 1987 to present. Had the school been operating in California, it would have been required to have some sort of approval.”

The Better Business Bureau entry on Corllins says the school is not BBB-accredited. The BBB website includes a Grandville, Michigan street address for the school, but says “The true physical address of Corllins University is unknown. On September 15, 2010, BBB mail sent to the Grandville, MI address was returned by the U.S. Post Office marked “Return to Sender, Not Deliverable As Addressed, Unable To Forward”…. The BBB called the company to obtain a current address. The company stated that the correct mailing address is 8721 Santa Montica Blvd., #1249, Los Angeles, CA 90069-45070.”

5. Pittsburg’s School Board Will Probably Change Its Future Hiring Practices

After Robertson’s Tuesday-night resignation, Pittsburg’s Superintendent of Schools Destry Brown told the Morning Sun newspaper that the school subjected Robertson to the same vetting process as every other candidate. “We typically don’t vet transcripts and we don’t ask for official transcripts until after we’ve made the decision to hire and we start working through the paperwork. There were no questions about that, until after we made the decision to hire and that’s when the questions arose.”

This is the same procedure other Kansas school districts use, Brown said, but as a result of the Robertson fiasco “We’re probably going to make a change in our process.”

As of last week, the Kansas State Department of Education had told the Morning Sun that it found no issues with Robertson’s credentials, though she needed to take a few classes to get a Kansas administrators’ license – a procedure which Brown said is common practice for out-of-state school hires.

Brown also told the Morning Sun that “There were a lot of questions about [Corllins] University. We were not able to prove or disprove any of that information and neither was the state of Kansas.”

But Pittsburg High junior and Booster Redux journalist Maddie Baden said to the Kansas City Star, “If students could uncover all of this, I want to know why the adults couldn’t find this.”

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