Could Kool and The Gang be the best musicians out of Jersey City?

They are really good.

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I understand the law and it is great in theory. However, in practice there is no way to enforce it. Source4Teachers is not forthcoming about collecting this data so we don't know how it is used. The downside to "big data" is that now they don't have to ask what your religion is. They can just check if you were absent the past few years on the Jewish holidays and choose someone else who wasn't.

When their data collection practice is shrouded in secrecy how will we even know?

This is another example of the lack of accountability privatization creates in the public sector. It obscures the chain of command. Source4Teachers isn't accountable to the students or parents in Jersey City and they have ignored numerous requests for their written privacy and data collection policies.

It is hard for me to not view this as another example of Marcia Lyles implementing the Broad Academy philosophy of "privatization at any cost". Why let the competent law enforcement our taxes are already paying for do a job when you can hire a private corporation. This is also an excellent example of the lack of accountability privatization creates in the public sector. Instead of having to answer for their decision to keep their people armed in a school while doing an assessment they take our money and walk away to their other "contracts". This really worries me. I feel it has made our students less safe. How do we have strangers with guns walking around our schools? If they were there for assessment why couldn't they leave their guns locked up in a safe somewhere? The JCPD that I have witnessed in action in schools have been well suited to their assignment, and have been great with the kids.

I spent some more time searching and was unable to find the company's privacy policy anywhere. I find this incredibly suspect considering that this company is collecting a database on health, religious, and personal information of students and teachers. I know a lot of people are not that concerned about this, but data collection is an emerging topic and a hot and valued trend in the business world. In the not-to-distant future a lot of people are going to wake up and be surprised to learn that corporations and other entities have so much information on them that they can predict their behavior better than their closest friends can. I encourage parents and teachers in Jersey City to demand that the district make the privacy policy of Source4teachers available in writing.

The company has other issues as well including physical and sexual abuse allegations. Unfortunately, contracting services out decreases accountability.

"Other complaints by parents and district teachers include substitutes unable to speak English with others texting and talking on cell phones when they should have been following lesson plans left by teachers. Other allegations include a sub calling students in a learning disabled math class at Schuyler-Colfax Middle School as "stupid." - See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/21180 ... ge=1#sthash.TaljNi7L.dpuf

PS It was none other than Kevin Bush who have us the double speak explanation of the privacy policy when asked.

That is just it. In a world where you can't buy a song (or post on a message board) without having to check a box saying you read the privacy policy I find it alarming that A. We didn't have to do that for a site where we share children's most sensitive information with strangers and B. I can't find the privacy policy when I look

As part of our back to school orientation we received a presentation about JCPS district?s new corporate partner Source4teachers. This is the new way that they will handle substitutes for sick teachers and as a teacher and parent it raised some serious concerns.

When asked about their privacy policy and data collection the representative (who was apparently a high up CEO) responded with the typical politician / car salesman ?I?ll reply while completely ignoring your question? maneuver. His suspicious response prompted a few other teachers to ask the question repeatedly and he kept being evasive and frankly seemed annoyed that people cared about their privacy. I did a cursory search on Google and keywords such as ?source4teachers? ?privacy policy? and ?data collection? yielded no valid information (interestingly these keywords drew up a fluff article about a backpack giveaway they did as the second search result ).

I think the reasons to care are valid and deserved more than ?we?ve been around since 2000 and serve over 100 districts blah blah etc.?

The company effectively creates a database of teachers?, religion, personal information, health, personal business. This information would be of serious interest to many parties such as:

Health Insurance companies who my use this information to dictate premiums.

Future employers who may not want an observant Jew who will need to take off for the Jewish holidays (particularly problematic for employers such as JCPS who repeatedly schedule the first day of school on Rosh Hashanah). Other non-christian religions obviously face similar prejudice.

Private education companies (such as Amplify ) who may be interested in plagiarizing teacher?s substitute lesson plans.

Future employers who may not want to accommodate a disability.

Companies in general who may desire this information for marketing purposes.

Perhaps of greater concern than the teachers? data collection is the concern for the student data . Our representative gave the example of a note we could give to a substitute through the website saying, ?Here you can give a note to the substitute such as Johnny has a behavior issue so watch him or Suzy has trouble focusing.? As educators this information about students is especially sensitive and protected. This wanton regard for student health issues, learning disabilities, or behavior issues particularly with a company who is not forthright with their privacy policy and data sharing is alarming.

These issues seem particularly egregious in light of the fact that the service won?t be of any use for the vast majority of absences. The representative said that the typical sick call (made the morning of work) did not give them enough time to supply a substitute so the old system will have to be used in this case. I assume most people are like me and wake up in hopes that they are better after a night?s sleep instead of deciding to call in sick a full day ahead of time. The system seems so useless I wonder where the value lies and why they were contracted. The cynic in me suspects that they donate to the right political campaigns and/or have the right investors. Or perhaps it is simply Marcia Lyles implementing the Broad Academy philosophy of incremental privatization at any cost.