Source4teachers is a scam. In Woodbridge Township, the existing subs took a pay cut from $120 per day to $85 per day. The district was told they would save $250,000 in substitute costs. Did not happen. In the first year they had to transfer funds in the budget to cover the increased costs. It went from 1.2 million budgeted to 1.8 million actual. That was 4 years ago. Since then the cost of substituting has doubled and yet the subs still get the same daily rate. Source4teachers was thrown out of an Essec County district three days after a sub hit a child. Here in Woodbridge, S4T has placed subs that don't speak English. Get this. One day a sub showed up with her translator. She was told to leave. One sub was put in a special ed room. The paras found her texting continuously and she would not listen to what thedaily routine was. She was told to leave immediately. There have been at least 4 cases of students being hit and corporal punishment being used in the classrooms. This only happens with subs that were hired after S4T took over. The original 400 Woodbridge subs that moved over to S4T is now around 150. Being afraid of who could be in their classroom, teachers do not enter into the absentee management system when they will be out. They call the school secretaries who will assign the "regulars" that they know and trust. Source4Teachers is a politically connected firm. What they do is not legal. My substitute certification was issued by the Middlesex County Superintendent specifically to Woodbridge. S4T made us transfer it to Piscataway who gets $ to do the extra paperwork. Somehow S4T is allowed to allow a sub to work anywhere in their 50 or so districts in any county without having a certificate in the specific district. It is a scam. Several other districts are dumping S4T. Edison was supposed to go on with them in 2011 and has never done so after hearing the horror stories. Bottom line, do you want to know that a qualified sub is in your child's classroom or some immigrant stranger? Beware S4T.

Quote:

The characterization of S4T subs as unable to find jobs elsewhere is so incredibly arrogant, and totally uncalled for. I am a S4T sub, have a B.A. in History and am six credits shy of my M.A.T. In addition, I have six continuing education credits in my content area. I passed the content exam, Praxis 2, on the first take. My GRE scores in verbal reasoning were in the 73rd percentile. In the last year, I have submitted well over two hundred Social Studies Teacher applications to various New Jersey school districts and have been called to interview ONLY TWICE. My recommendations are impeccable, two of which are from recommenders who hold PhDs. My essay questions are on point and thoroughly vetted, my GPA at the graduate level is a 3.86 (which granted should be expected) and while my undergraduate GPA isn?t so red hot, it is still above the minimum standard set by the State. (I?m older, partied a lot in college back in the day, was immature and did not graduate Magna cum laude, sorry.) I also have a well rounded extra curricular background, having participated in collegiate athletics, for example.

The anecdotes you proffer are merely anecdotal. Sure, it is a travesty that S4T cares little about the educational pedigree of its subs. Of course you?ll get a few boneheads coming in and out of your classroom. But what about all the boneheads who by way of political patronage get teaching jobs? I?ve seen more than my fair share of teachers whose lesson plans aren?t aligned with the Core Curriculum Content Standards.

As a S4T sub, more often than not, the teacher leaves no lesson plan and if by chance, the teacher does leave a lesson plan, it is often vague, i.e., ?have the students read pages 402 through 406 in their textbooks, then have them work on their projects.? What projects? There are some schools in Jersey City, such as Snyder High School, that no matter the substitute, there is no controlling the classroom, no matter how skilled the sub is in the art of classroom management. I?ll bet your first grade class isn?t much different as far as classroom management goes.

S4T pays its substitutes $91 per day, or roughly $11 per hour. There is no pay for Holidays, snow days, summer break, and of course, no healthcare benefits. Essentially, a S4T sub is paid one quarter of what a newly hired teacher is paid. So, you get what you pay for.

Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that any S4T stole anything from your class. Is there any evidence? Some rather specious and dubious claims you make.

Incidentally, anyone wanting to know what it is like to be a substitute teacher ought to take a look at this well-written piece:
The farcical expectation that substitute teachers maintain classroom order

Source for Teachers was basically brought in to administer the assignment of subs. I recall that Gerald Lyons, former school board member, was vociferously objecting to S4T because all they were doing was hiring the same subs that were already there, and giving them back to the district. Telissa Dowling, a substitute teacher who ran for school board, also said that she continued to serve as a substitute, but for reasons I could not understand, objected to the way that they placed her (the one thing I did understand is that she didn't like having to serve in more than one school). So I am a bit surprised that the claim is that the subs are no good, because just a few months ago the claim was that the subs were the same subs that the district had previously hired, and who were doing a great job.

From one of our teacher facebook pages a list of things we witnessed the Source4Teachers substitutes doing this year. We are giving this company millions of dollars to sell us substitutes that can't get jobs anywhere else.

Took my lesson plan book with all my resources

in class on their cell phone the entire period, never spoke to the students then went to lunch and never came back

Sit in the teacher's room for 3 lunch periods, talk and text on their cell phone, oh and did I mention sit in the teacher's room for 3 lunch periods?!?!

The best I saw was one studying for the praxis all day. In spec ed rooms they sit there and do nothing while the aides run the room.

Let half the kids not take out laptops to do the assignment.
Dress like they work at a factory, not on a school.
Not speak English.
Tell the kids not to do what the lesson plans say and what they were instructed to do by their teacher.

drunk and smell like beet.

Showed a video off you tube that was not part of the plan, then sent me a crazy letter when I blew the whistle on him lol

I had one cover for a special. When I asked her if she had something for them to work on, she told me of course...a Netflix account!

Doodle on a teacher's desk calendar. Sitting at the desk on their laptop.

How about a cigarette in the student's restroom?

Also saw a sub with earphones in whiles aides and assistants worked with the students

I haven't seen them do much of anything besides sleep and talk on their cell phones

One asked if she could give the kids $1 for helping her & behaving. Another didn't follow very specific plans & did grade work for another level.

The sub for World Language class that was held in my room stole the picture and Scholastic Book order envelopes filled with my students money ... Also took my mini speakers from my laptop... Another time sub couldn't read the vocabulary words from the list... Had to have 1 of my students help him... Very sad!!!

I had a sub cover a special in my room. I didn't notice her odor when I left. However when I came back 10 minutes later I was overcome by her body odor and became nauseated. She smelled so badly that every student in my class had their shirt up covering their nose and mouth. When they saw the disturbed look on my face they all pointed at her. I was mortified, I cut my prep short, opened every window and took my students on a walk through the building until the classroom aired out! I promise I'm not exaggerating lol

I had an in building workshop for 1.5 hrs. He was going to cover my class ( a rough class I admit) so I left a movie and a ton of work. Within 2 minutes of me exiting the room 3 of my students were "going to the bathroom" I saw them and sent them back and explained the class went with me prior to him coming so no one needed to leave. 20 min later I returned to grab a TE for the workshop. There was chaos on my room and he was sitting at my desk eating! I calmed them down, got them back in their seats and left. 15 min later ( while I was in the workshop right down the hall) I saw students of mine running through the halls fighting.... Uggggh
I once had another SFT sub knock on my door to ask to borrow a thumb drive so she could save her class work ( college I assume) and then could I print it for her.....BTW I teach first grade....

Yes I have had lesson plans ignored. And also see subs sleeping in teacher's room.

I had a sub leave for lunch and never come back. Spent the rest of the day in the teacher's room on another floor in my building!!! I had to cover the rest of my co-teacher's classes because we had no idea where the sub went!!!

During a fire drill, she left half the class behind in the stairwell.

Hit the principal's car and leave the scene of an accident.

The US has lagged behind Europe on regulating on this.

https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Directive
https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998

Well if the contract is already in place then ... suck it up until it expires or prove in court that the parties involved have somehow breached the laws or terms of the contract. Cause no court will uphold a contract where uploading the contract would mean breach of common law. And labor and privacy laws are already in place and practice. I mean isn't the whole NSA drama all about the privacy?

Google grabs more privacy info about me (from gmail to phone and anything in between) than NSA and yet we go after NSA and not Google. LOL only yesterday I got an email from LinkedIn about a job offer and I was not even looking. Perhaps LinkedIn pulled my email info from one of my contacts that are in LinkedIn and are actively searching.

I honestly fail to see the concerns ... Source4Teachers is a private contractor so the Public Employee and their supervisor didn't put the requirements and benchmarks into the contracts?

I know for a fact that if Verizon Business DSL fails to keep-up it's signed and agreed Service Level Agreements (SLA) they are penalized and have to pay retribution for breach of contract. Having said that why can't the Request for Proposals (RFP) have these clauses that they need to disclose such and such and need to abide by the laws and operating agreement of the BoE. I mean the BoE has legal staff on the payroll right?

If I had a firm I'd like to become a govt contractor (well not the feds :) no thanks Republicans ...) but having said that put it out in the RFP and in the SLA. Then it's just a matter of enforcement. So what's the big hoo haa about?

Now if you got unqualified public employees ... well that's a totally diff story cause under the unions I don't know if they can be fired for incompetence. We all JC property owners did fork over $4 mill over 2 budget cycles due to to the error of BoE.

JPhurst Please re-read the above posts I don't like repeating myself.

Ok, so to confirm, the company is NOT asking about your religion, health history, or anything else of the sort?

Quote:

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.

The laws which prohibit discrimination in employment also prohibit inquiring into such matters. You cannot ask an employee in a job interview "What is your religion," "What is your nationality?"or the like. So if source4teachers is gathering such information as part of their application process, they are likely violating the law.

Quote:

This doesn't get to your main point, but at least strike these two off your list.

The information cannot be used to set premiums for any individual. Thank you, Obamacare.

Employers may wish to not make accommodations for a disability, but that is also barred by numerous federal laws and regulations not least of which is the Americans with Disabilities Act.

But your basic question is entirely reasonable and deserves a good answer. The company should know the answer and be able to state it without too much drama. Don't discount the possibility that the spokesperson was not prepared for the question and did a poor job of faking it. Follow up.

Unbelievable! Even more incredible is that 5 years later a JC high school is still handing this crap out to their students. I guess I need to talk to the PTO.

Colleen's link ;

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases08/ ... 1030b-ERCA-Settlement.pdf

Scumbags. Anybody smell Eli Broad [url=https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAG&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nj.gov%2Foag%2Fnewsreleases08%2Fpr20081030b-ERCA-Settlement.pdf&ei=Jl4yUvSbHpHa9ASomoHYCA&usg=AFQjCNGs-1fPQD4bSkSi3eqqOjuf_Win9A&bvm=bv.52164340,d.eWU] here?

Very dodgy - could be used as a way to select prospective students that apply to enter 'private' schools or colleges. The advice to throw away any such forms to fill in, is on the money as the right thing to do.

The survey they gave out was from "Educational Research Center of America". This is their site http://www.studentresearch.org/.

I scanned it to a PDF and posted it here: http://www.fileswap.com/dl/5ulN3ndYxS/

Maybe someone else can figure out what the score is with it. There's definitely something sketchy.

What! Are those private forprofit schools paying anything and they are collecting info on our kids?

What is the deal on this?


Quote:

Does this have anything to do with the completely bizarre and intrusive form my HS freshman son was given to fill out? It appears to be a shill for the "for profit higher education" industry. After the personal data it requested was a list of colleges, obscure and apparently for profit, and a request to pick the ones you were considering. Another list was of professions, all apparently things you can train for at "for profit" schools. Things like Doctor or Lawyer were not present.

At the bottom of the form in small type was the information that it was voluntary. I told him to throw it away.

Are they collecting information from students? That makes no sense and would be wrong.

I thought they were brought in because the BOE was not capable of finding qualified substitutes. Though they did a piss poor job explaining on channel 1.


Quote:

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

You're right to be concerned about it. How do they collect the personal information on teachers?

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.