Saturday, August 18, 2012

Chicago teachers authorize strike! Come build solidarity & learn about the struggle

UPDATE: 10AM




http://youtu.be/IxVYFm2g9CM

The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.

On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.

Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation's wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.

The signs are being printed, and anyone who thinks Chicago's Bullies-In-Chief are going to settle a reasonable union contract for the city's teachers without a serious strike have no experiences with facing down real bullies. Rahm and the billionaires backing him (the same people who made sure he "earned" $18 million during his years as what he called "Relationship Banking") hate unions (unless we are on our knees in company unions) and still feel they can manipulate the media and the "messaging" against the city's teachers and real public schools.


A discussion featuring a presentation by a Chicago Teachers Union member


Thursday, August 23rd
6:30 p.m.
at The Murphy Institute
25 West 43rd Street, between 5th and 6th avenues
18th Floor, Room C/D


Public schools, teachers and their unions are under attack throughout the country.  The drive to privatize our public schools and strip away teacher protections is only accelerating.   In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel canceled a promised 4% pay raise to Chicago teachers and proposed lengthening the school day by 20% with only a 2% raise.  In addition, Emanuel proposes implementing a merit pay system for teachers--a similar system in Baltimore has led to 60% of teachers receiving unsatisfactory ratings.  In response, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has refused to back down and has shown the power of solidarity, holding large rallies and forging alliances with community members.  The CTU is demanding smaller class sizes, fair pay and a diverse and fulfilling curriculum for Chicago students.  This spring, 90% of all CTU members voted to authorize a strike.  98% of those voting authorized a strike.   

The CTU's campaign has met with some initial success.  Emanuel recently agreed to hire almost 500 teachers, mostly arts, PE and enrichment teachers.  These teachers will be hired from a pool of laid-off, experienced teachers.  The result is that a longer school day will not force teachers to work longer and harder with no compensation.

While this victory is inspiring, the CTU's strike preparations continue, as there has been no agreement on teacher pay, class sizes, merit pay and other important issues.  It is urgent that teachers, parents and community members show our solidarity with CTU.  We also have a lot to learn from CTU's struggle.


Come hear a presentation by a CTU member and help organize solidarity for the Chicago teachers here in NYC!


Stand with CTU!
Sponsored by (list in formation):  Movement of Rank and File Educators, Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence, Coalition for Public Education, Grassroots Education Movement (GEM), Labor Notes, New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), New York City Labor Against the War, OWS Labor Outreach Committee, Independent Community of Educators (ICE).

Contact nycctusolidarity@gmail.com to help organize the event or to co-sponsor


Friday, August 17, 2012

Albert Shanker on Merit Pay

Shanker says some interesting and contradictory things in these statements. I raise the issue here to support my theme that in any ways Randi Weingarten has not shifted the position of the AFT/UFT far from where Shanker was coming from, though later in this post you will see Shanker say something that you won't hear from Weingarten.

Meet the Press, May, 1983
Shanker said he was urging all teachers to keep "an open mind" about merit pay. He praised elements of the plan pro-posed by Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander that was blocked by strenuous lobbying by the NEA's state affiliate. Shanker said Alexander's plan would provide "very large rewards" to a large number of Tennessee teachers, who would have a voice in determining who got the bonus pay. He said the plan had some shortcomings, but "meets many of the objections which teachers traditionally have raised."

The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, March 30, 1982
MacNEIL: Are you saying that a teacher cannot by himself or herself make himself better by an act of will in order to gain more pay?
Mr. SHANKER: That's right. If you pay me more money I will not sing any better than I usually sing, and whenever I sing I sing as well as I can, and whenever I teach I teach as well as I can.
MacNEIL: Well, why, if extra pay is an incentive for good performance everywhere else in the American system, should it not be for teachers?
Mr. SHANKER: Well, there are some things where extra pay is an incentive and works, and there are other fields -- for instance, I doubt very much that if you gave a soldier in the middle of a battle more money that that soldier would do any better. And I don't think anybody has ever proposed it. I think that people in battle generally fight as well as they can because they're fighting for their own lives. And I think a teacher in a classroom is fighting for his or her self respect, professional life, and that the -- I would add one other thing. You know, I don't know of any other field where people get punished for being satisfactory, and that's part of this proposal. If you're satisfactory you're punished. I also feel that, you know, whether you're viewed as being satisfactory or superior largely depends on how you stand in relationship or in comparison to your colleagues. And if I'm in a school, and if I know that my evaluation and rating is going to depend on not only how well I do, but [how] everyone else in that school does, I'm not going to help other teachers if I have some professional talents. Instead of cooperating with my colleagues and helping them solve prob-lems, the first thing I'm going to think of is, "Gee, if they've got this same ability that I do, I'm not going to look like I'm superior, because they all have it." So one of the things that this sets up is, instead of setting up a cooperative and mutu-ally supportive atmosphere, it sets up very destructive competition.

This discussion came out of an email from James Boutin, our former NYC colleague now working in Seattle.

Hi NYCers,

It seems we have something similar to E4E sprouting out here in Seattle. The guy below says Al Shanker endorsed merit pay. Anyone know if this is true?

Teachers United is an interesting development to me. They work with Stand for Children, support charters and merit pay, tell stories about how their TFA members raised test scores dramatically at all the schools they ever worked at, and say they support the Washington Education Association and people in the WEA while suggesting that teachers consider working outside the union to get things done....

http://crosscut.com/2012/06/21/k-12/109245/teachers-

James Boutin

Public School Teacher
, www.anurbanteacherseducation.


Pat Dobosz suggested some sites:


Ed Notes Online: Merit Pay, the UFT, TJC, and NCLB
Shanker Blog » Revisiting The Merits Of Merit Pay
What Albert Shanker Said About Merit Pay « Diane Ravitch's blog
Jeff Kaufman found some interesting items
Like many issues Shanker’s views on merit pay were nuanced and at times appeared contradictory. I have attached two articles (SEE PDFs BELOW). One, a transcript from the MacNeil Lehrer News Report in 1982 seems to be emphatic in his opposition to merit pay and the second article is about an appearance less than a year later on Meet the Press (but after a then Tenn. Gov Alexander proposal to teacher distributed merit pay) in which he speaks in favor. I have not reviewed hundreds of other statements and articles he is either quoted or wrote about this issue but I am sure there are more nuanced positions in there.
John Lawhead followed up with:
Shanker's openness to merit pay in May '83 followed his endorsement of the Nation at Risk report which was released a month before.  Merit pay was one of its recommendations.  In supporting the report he reversed himself on a number of issues.

In the Kahlenberg biography Sandra Feldman is quoted saying, "We all had this visceral reaction to it. You know, 'This is horrible.  They're attacking teachers.'  Shanker's shift shocked everyone.  He obviously didn't bother waiting for consensus from the rest of the AFT leadership.  For him it didn't work that way.
Here are the pdfs from 30 years ago. Wow. Really interesting stuff. Thanks Jeff.

The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, March 30, 1982
Meet the Press, The Associated Press, May 29, 1983

Here is something Shanker said that some might wish Weingarten/Mulgrew would repeat:
Shanker, asked if his union would defend incompetent teachers against firing, said, "We'd defend them, but we defend murderers in our society, too, and rapists and everybody else. The fact is that you're innocent until proven guilty."

Reagan's Attacks Hurt Teaching Profession, Meet the Press, Al Shanker


Grading Teachers the MacNeilLehrer Report M

Today- Change the Stakes Meeting Plus Some Facts

UPDATE: 7PM - I'm sitting at the meeting for the past 2 hours with over 20 teachers, parents, college teachers, researchers and even some kids. On an Friday in August. And every minute of the meeting has been so rich and enlightening. These meetings will continue the 3rd Friday of every month. Next: Sept. 21, 5:30PM at CUNY.

Change the Stake, an offshoot of the  Grassroots Education Movement, has become one of the few true parent/teacher groups that I know of. We have a full agenda today and I will update people on the status of our next film about high stakes testing.

Friday, August 17th, 5 PM SHARP (everyone welcome to arrive at 4:30 for pre-meeting mingling)

Room 5414 CUNY Grad Center, 5th Ave. between 34th and 35th Streets

PLEASE BRING ID TO ENTER THE BUILDING

We have tentatively scheduled a separate meeting on Tuesday, September 4th to specifically discuss the Opt Out experience of last school year, and think strategically about the Opt Out strategy for the coming year.

===


Pat D writes:
Here is a good article to read.  Kohn speaks about boycotting tests as wellas why we should be against them and what we can do. Fighting the Tests by Alfie Kohn
Some Statistics:

... a recent poll in Texas which showed that only 27% of teachers in Texas felt that increased test scores reflected increased learning and higher quality teaching. 85% of teachers said that they neglected subjects not covered by the TAAS exam.

WellstoneHighStakesTests.htm
 Janine follows:

The link to Sen. Wellstone's speech isn't connecting, (maybe you must be a member?) but lead me to seek it out here: 
http://www.wpaag.org/
WellstoneHighStakesTests.htm

The site that (likely once) had the post is an organization I've never heard of and maybe we should be reaching out to them, since (unless funded by those who are only pretending to be for children), seem to hold the values we also hold:  http://www.
educationrevolution.org/

Though I was not familiar with Sen. Wellstone's perspective on most things, I always thought his death was questionable.  After reading this, I'm even more suspicious......What a loss to this cause.  For those who look further into things like this:  http://www.snowshoefilms.com/
wellstone.html


=======

Walcott With Tenure Numbers

We'll have more comments on the tenure story since our last post (read it and check out the comments). Does the UFT Wish Tenure Would Go Away While Hoping the Taylor Law Stays for a Lifetime?


SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR DENNIS M. WALCOTT ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF TEACHER TENURE DECISIONS

For the Second Year in a Row, More Rigorous Standards Raise the Bar for Tenure

55 Percent of This Year’s Eligible Teachers Were Granted Tenure, Compared to 97% in 2007


Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott today announced that 55 percent of eligible teachers were awarded tenure this year—maintaining the more rigorous standards developed for the 2010-11 school year. The Department of Education’s new approach to teacher tenure raises the bar by asking principals to provide detailed evidence to support their tenure recommendations.
“I’d like to congratulate the teachers who were granted tenure this year, and commend principals who are demanding higher standards. Receiving tenure is no longer an automatic right, and our new approach ensures that teachers who are granted tenure have earned it,” said Chancellor Walcott. “But our work is not done. We must improve the tenure process even further, and a teacher evaluation system will do just that and ensure our children are taught by the best.”
Under state law, a teacher who has completed his or her “probationary period,” or first three years of teaching, is eligible for tenure review. The number of eligible teachers decreased by 24 percent this year from 5,209 to 3,954 because fewer teachers were hired the past few years. Of the eligible teachers:

·         55% of teachers had their tenure decisions approved this year, compared to 97% in 2007 
·         42% of teachers had their tenure decision extended this year, compared to 2% in 2007
·         3% of teachers had their tenure decisions denied, compared to 1% in 2007

Of the teachers who received extensions last year:
·         42% received tenure this year
·         35% received another extension
·         16% were denied tenure or left the system
·         7% were not included for review this year due to service, license or assignment changes

Principals must support their tenure recommendations with evidence in three categories: teacher practice, evidence of student learning and contributions to the school community. For each of these categories, teachers are rated on a four-point scale: ineffective, developing, effective or highly effective. Principals collect data from classroom observations, quality of student work, progress on state assessments, attendance, and student and parent feedback, among other measures. Special consideration is given to gains demonstrated with high-need populations, including students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and students who are over-age and under-credited. 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Come picket CBS Friday morning!

Save Our Schools is inviting you to picket in front of the CBS Broadcast Studio at 6:30 AM tomorrow (Friday).

Come picket CBS Friday morning!

On Tuesday, August 14 a Concert called TEACHERS ROCK, presented by Walmart & promoting the movie “Won’t Back Down” was held in LA: with appearances from Carrie Underwood, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Garner, Matthew Morrison, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Usher, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and others. On Friday, August 17 the concert will be aired on CBS.

The movie itself, “Won’t Back Down,” will premiere September 28. This film already has sparked much controversy. Developed by the producers of "Waiting for Superman," it gives a fictional account of parent trigger laws, and continues to attack public school systems.
The concert also supports Teach for America –which seems to be doing all it can to undermine professional teachers. Lets speak up for good public schools with well prepared teachers who are treated as professionals.

Come to 524 W. 57th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues Friday, August 17, at 6:30 AM to picket outside CBS's Morning Show at the CBS Broadcast Studio, Bring signs, pamphlets, etc. We will have a flier to pass out.

If you can, let me know if you plan to come, but show up anyhow.
--- --- ---
Another protest - NYGPS will hold a "Fat Cat Tour" in Midtown where they'll go to offices of the main funders of Students First NY on Tuesday @ 9:30, meet on 66 ST. and 2nd Ave. Information from Julian@aqeny.org.



Does the UFT Wish Tenure Would Go Away While Hoping the Taylor Law Stays for a Lifetime?

New York’s Taylor Law banning and penalizing public worker strikes violates fundamental workers’ rights protected by international law. -- ILO
If you start digging into the UFT response, or lack thereof, on the tenure issue, they want tenure to go away so they don't have to answer for it...
Would UFT leaders be happy if we had the right to strike like teachers in Chicago despite the limitations? What do you think? Let me try to connect a few dots.

There is an interesting article on tenure and the politics behind granting, not granting, extending, etc. at Gotham Schools:

Amid tenure crackdown, some targeted teachers get good news

Making tenure go away

It is worth reading along with some of the comments. Watching the behavior of the UFT/AFT leadership based on lots of anecdotal evidence and some observations I added the comment below which I expanded into a general analysis of the motivations behind the actions of UFT/AFT/NYSUT complex. Before going to the analysis there are a few points to make about the tenure issue.

First, meet any untenured teacher and the concept of getting tenure is absolutely on their minds -- except if you run across a TFA or E4E slug on the way out of teaching. I met quite a few at the Gotham party yesterday and that fact was reaffirmed.

Secondly, I want to tell a brief story about a UFT DA I attended last spring where Mulgrew was asked what to do if a teacher keeps getting tenure extended year after year -- like a 3rd time. His response: let us know. Too bad the person asking the question didn't follow up with "But if we let you know what will you do about it." Oh, I know the answer: We'll look into it. OK, after you look into it what will you do?

In fact, I believe the UFT wants tenure to go away as an issue and would breathe a sigh of relief if the politicians took it away while they put up a feeble fight (see New Jersey, Cleveland, and the rest of the AFT sell-out tour).

In fact the more you dig the more you find all sorts of revised unwritten tenure issues that have come up that the UFT is ignoring. Like teachers who transfer to a new school in their 3rd year are told that they can't get tenure because they have to work under the principal for 2 years. Or teachers who switch from middle school to high school have to go through some sort of retenuring process. And of course the big enchilada, principals who want to show their bosses how tough  they are --- like how does it look if 100% of your teachers get tenure even if they are all John Dewey? And finally, the denial of tenure to teachers at schools branded as failures, the main point of the Gotham article. In other words, the entire process of not granting tenure for political and not educational reasons.

Send me any info you find on any UFT response or comments on these issues. Is this the fear of Campbell Brown-like attacks operating?

You know this is reminding me of what was done in NYC during the 1930's depression when they had 2 classes of teachers, regulars and permanent subs who made less money and had less rights -- they found all sorts of ways to keep people in the permanent sub category. And I believe the denial of tenure, possibly year after year is returning us to those years.

Taylor Law outlawing strikes takes union leaders off the hook

This is from an interesting article in the Labor Press about an International Labor Organization ruling:
A November 2011 International Labor Organization decision ruled, after the Transport Workers Union Local 100 filed a complaint with the ILO in November 2009 after the union struck in December 2005 and was heavily fined, that New York’s Taylor Law banning and penalizing public worker strikes violates fundamental workers’ rights protected by international law. With 200,000 city public workers without contracts, in some cases over five years, the ILO decision would seem to have presented the city’s public sector unions the economic leverage they have desperately needed to win new contracts. ...... However, since the November 2011 ILO decision regarding the TWU’s complaints ... there hasn’t been a unified response from the city’s public unions, although 200,000 members are working without contracts.
What does that tell you about our labor leaders?

Here was my comment at Gotham:


I believe if you start digging into the UFT response, or lack thereof, on the tenure issue, they want tenure to go away so they don't have to answer for it ala Campbell Brown attacks, etc. But if they are too open about it they face some wrath from the members. So in the ideal world of the UFT, the politicians take it away and they say, "See, it wasn't out fault we just have to give more money to COPE to elect OUR politicians," which of course they know they never will but it takes them off the hook. This is part of the consistency of the UFT/AFT/NYSUT policy -- try to appear as one thing to the members but as another to the rest of the world.

Thus the policy of pushing collaboration because the alternative would be to engage in a war which given the way they operate internally (lack of democracy, total top-down, lack of engagement of the members) they cannot win. (Vs Chicago TU which has mobilized its membership to engage in the war). Why won't they do what Chicago TU has done? You can only mobilize people effectively if they feel they have a say in union policy and the ability to influence it. Giving people such a say is a bigger threat to the union/Unity Caucus leadership than the ed deformers. Thus the support for charter schools and even co-locations in the hope that they can organize teachers in charters even if a small percentage. (See: Exposing UFT/Charter Connections as UFT Supports Co-location)

They know that in the long run the teachers unions without a fight will suffer slow strangulation but given that within the straight jacket of their political framework they are helpless to stop it, at least the people at the top can exist for quite a while and if they make the proper deals with ed deformers (Gates, Broad, etc) they might be able to keep the shell of a union going with them at the top. Ed deformers are not unified. The right wing Republicans want to kill the unions and the leadership completely while the Dem/liberal deformers (Obama, Bloomberg, Gates) see the usefulness to them of keeping the shell and as long as the union gives them pieces of what they want and keeps giving they will support the existence of the current leadership. That is why Chicago is such a massive threat to the entire arrangement between the unions and the Dem deformers.
================
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

How Dare Ryan and Romney Claim They Made it on Their Own?

Maureen Dowd really nails Paul Ryan in today's NY Times:

When Cruelty Is Cute

I won't even get into the Ayn Rand (pro abortion, atheist, every man and woman for themselves) stuff. Ryan is already taking a beating (some are saying that ultimately he is a worse choice than Sarah Palin who someone on NPR said, "didn't read while Ryan did read Rand"). This is what set me off:
Like Mitt Romney, Ryan truly believes he made it on his own, so everyone else can, too. He shrugs off the advantage of starting as the white guy from an affluent family, able to breeze into a summer internship for a Wisconsin Republican senator as a college student.
Only 16 and the youngest of four when he discovered his lawyer dad dead in bed from a heart attack at 55, Ryan had to grow up fast.
I read this to my wife and we looked at each other and said, "WE truly made it on our own, not Mitt or Ryan." Well, let me qualify that.

My wife has Ryan beat by 2 years with the death of her father when she was 14. She didn't just find him dead, she saw him die in front of her. He was 47 and owned a small grocery on Rogers Ave. My wife's brother was 11 at the time and he grew up right then and there. When I met him when he was about 17 he could do just about anything. And still can. The family was left with little and mom had to go to work.

Both my wife's parents graduated from high school.

My parents parents barely went to school. My mom came over form Europe in 1920 at the age of 15 and went to work right away in the garment industry. My dad who was born here in 1918 (yes my mom was a cougar) had a few accidents as a kid which left him blind in one eye and possible slightly brain damaged and never felt he could concentrate in school. He dropped out in the 8th or 9th grade. He too went to work in the garment industry as a presser and was a union member -- the ILGWU. I was proud when he was a picket captain during a strike.

As an only child born to my mom when she was 40 I received way more attention than I wanted or needed. But school for my mom was at the top of the list despite being barely able to read or write (she was embarrassed to go into a bank to sign her name because she couldn't). She was up there every open school night arguing my case. I resented her interference. When I had reports to do even as early as the 4th grade we were off to the library. I remember we all spend one entire Saturday at the main Grand Army Plaza branch where my dad copied parts of the entire encyclopedia for me to take home and work from.

Regular visits to the Schenectady and East Pkwy branch where I took out books galore -- my home didn't have any books  -- my parents I do not think ever read a book. My school library at George Gershwin JHS (now to be closed) was a haven on Fridays after lunch with ancient Miss Gouldsmith.

My wife has a BA and MA and I have a BA and MA in ed and in computer science. My wife was highly successful as a hospital admin and made very good money managing the affairs of a corporate entity there.

Yes, we sort of made it on our own.. But we really didn't. With parents of very modest means we still couldn't have done it without them. So how dare Mitt and Paul even suggest they made it on their own. All of us would never have made it without family support. In my almost 40 years in the school system I met many wonderful families and also many struggling families (many of whom were also wonderful) but with nowhere the resources and support my wife and I received.

Really, how dare Mitt and Paul even suggest that these people should make it on their own like they did.

Below is Dowd's full piece.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Exposing UFT/Charter Connections as UFT Supports Co-location

Union [UFT] officials said they would not object to Waronker’s school receiving public space if the building offered has enough room and the existing schools do not object to getting a new neighbor.
Aside from the issue of charter expansion and the potential of a contentious co-location battle, this seems to me to be more experimentation on poor kids in the name of "innovation." What parent and/or teacher wouldn't prefer to have their kid in a class of 15 -- a proven model for success -- rather than in a class of 60? Where is the evidence that this works at all? I encourage people to read this NYT article: New American Academy in Brooklyn Is an Experiment in Class Size - http://goo.gl/Fk7tD ----- Leonie Haimson
What kind of union helps an employer "work around the union contract?" I guess a union that only cares about keeping the dues money coming in, while the contract is gutted and public schools dismantled. Thank you, Randi Weingarten, for showing the world what employer-union collaboration really means. Absolutely, utterly, beyond disgraceful, and a clear demonstration of how the AFT/UFT leadership is captive to the premises and practice of ed deform. --- Michael Fiorillo

Waronker would leave the New American Academy for the charter school, where he would be headmaster, according to the plan, a move that would allow him potentially to earn more than he does as a district principal. 
Children First, of course. Don't get me wrong, I actually find some of Waronker's ideas appealing. So why doesn't he stay in one school and see them through?

But the bullet for me here is that the UFT actually comes out for colocation "if there's enough space" --- like who decides, the DOE scuzzballs --- or "if the school agrees". What exactly does that mean? The school is the principal who works for the DOE and if he/she doesn't agree - ZAPPO.

Can the UFT be any more hypocritical?

Gotham Schools has done a great job in this article of exposing the fault lines and semi-hidden agenda of the UFT and their pal Shimon Waronker, the famous Hassidic who gets more press than Moses. (New York Times columnist David Brooks praised the school in a piece this spring.)

What does it tell you that Waronker is praised by ed-idiot Brooks, the UFT and Joel Klein who said in 2008 “If I could clone Shimon Waronker, I would do that immediately."

First Waronker was a principal of MS 22. But that was not enough to stay in a school and build it as part of the community. Four years and out. And the latest news is not good:
M.S. 22 grew safer under Waronker’s watch, which lasted from 2004 to 2008, but performance continued to lag. This year, it wound up on the city’s list of schools to overhaul.)
Looks like Shimon got out before he could be branded a failed principal. Just like failed CEOs keep moving in front of the dust storm.

Of course he needs to run a school with a different idea so he gets one in Brooklyn. After only 2 years he needs another one despite the fact his
"school also does not have a track record of success yet. Last year, its oldest students were in second grade, so the school has no state test scores to boast." 
But why wait to find out if it works? Both he and the UFT want to replicate something that may be a total failure, as Leonie points out in this comment on the Gotham site:
Aside from the issue of charter expansion and the potential of a contentious co-location battle, this seems to me to be more experimentation on poor kids in the name of "innovation."  What parent and/or teacher wouldn't prefer to have their kid in a class of 15 -- a proven model for success -- rather than in a class of 60?  Where is the evidence that this works at all?  I encourage people to read this NYT article: New American Academy in Brooklyn Is an Experiment in Class Size - http://goo.gl/Fk7tD
He asks the DOE and since the UFT is a partner he is told to cool it. So he and his pals at the UFT do an end run.

Really, you have to read every word and every comment of this article. It is so good I may actually give Gotham a contribution tomorrow at their party (though I may eat and drink it all away.)

In a first, district school is aiming to expand as a charter school

Read it all but let me extract the juicy UFT parts:
Waronker’s application has the support of the United Federation of Teachers, which was involved in the New American Academy’s creation but has had a contentious relationship with the city’s charter sector. Leo Casey, a UFT official who is departing to lead a union-affiliated education research institute in Washington, D.C., is a founding board member
This paragraph says it all about what the UFT/AFT is all about:
The UFT was integral in paving the way for the New American Academy to open in the first place. It worked with the city to sign off on a special contract that allows teachers to have larger classes, work longer hours, and climb a career ladder that carries extra pay.
But union leaders have never lent themselves to charter schools’ boards, other than the two charter schools it operates and one that former UFT President Randi Weingarten supported because it was trying to pioneer a new model of charter-union collaboration, Casey said Waronker’s school has long impressed him. Its master teacher model, where high-paid, highly trained teachers serve as mentors to three others, is the best in any city school, he said.
You know, master teachers like E4E's Lori Wheal.
“At a time when everybody talks about innovation and falls back onto the most traditional modes of teaching, they really are doing it,” Casey said. “The school is based on the notion that you have to empower the teachers.”
Teachers are empowered to have larger class sizes, work longer hours and climb a career ladder (read: merit pay).
When the teachers union said it would help [Waronker] work around the union contract to set up some of the school’s special features, such as master teacher positions with salaries of $120,000 a year, and hour-and-a-half long blocks of early morning curriculum planning, he jumped at the opportunity.

But he said he is excited about the possibility of expanding as a charter school —and as one where the union will play an ongoing role. The school cannot open with its teachers unionized, but Waronker and Casey both said the expectation is that teachers will join the UFT quickly, a process that typically happens only after a fight.
As Michael said above:
What kind of union helps an employer "work around the union contract?"
I guess a union that only cares about keeping the dues money coming in, while the contract is gutted and public schools dismantled. Thank you, Randi Weingarten, for showing the world what employer-union collaboration really means.
Absolutely, utterly, beyond disgraceful, and a clear demonstration of how the AFT/UFT leadership is captive to the premises and practice of ed deform.
Here comes the fun part on co-location:
According to a letter of intent filed with the state, the two schools would not have any formal partnership beyond sending their teachers to the same training sessions during the summer and school year.

One piece of information the letter of intent left out was where exactly the school would be located. Waronker’s application asks for space in District 19, but it doesn’t say what kind of space he’s looking for. He said he would prefer to open in a district school building, in the kind of co-location arrangement that about two-thirds of city charter schools currently occupy, though he would figure out how to pay for private space if he had to.

The UFT’s own charter schools share space in public school buildings. But the union has opposed many co-locations and even sued to stop a number of them last year. Union officials said they would not object to Waronker’s school receiving public space if the building offered has enough room and the existing schools do not object to getting a new neighbor.

Ooooh, the UFT supports the Good Neighbor Policy.


Don't Back Down From Protesting "Won't Back Down" Movie

If you haven't noticed this yet, tonight there is a gala billed as "Teachers Rock" to support the parent trigger movie "Won't Back Down." It will be broadcast on CBS on Aug. 18. (Don't tell me CBS is trying to out "education nation" NBC.) There is so much material coming in I can't include it all. So look at this as a data dump of web sites and some commentary (sorry for some redundancy). If you have more leave the link in the comment section and I'll update this post.

Leonie put up a superb FAQ re the movie “Won’t Back Down” and the Parent Trigger

Here are some more key ref's on Won't Back Down and its corporate backing:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13643/walmart_
anschutz_teachers_rock_wont_back_down_union_parent_trigger_viola_da/
com/pages/Boycott-of-Movie-Wont-Back-Down/270090189772778
Ravitch's twitter campaign:
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/08/07/tell-wont-back-down-to-back-off/

Parent trigger laws are designed to allow parents at a school to vote to close it and reopen it as a charter. In reality the parents end up with less rights than they started with given that a public school is subject to more pressure than a charter. Go ask the people behind parent trigger laws if they will allow the parents to elect the charter board.

The charter chains are behind these moves and pour money into getting signatures through hook or crook and then drive the engine the rest of the way. Even when parents realize they have been fooled they are not allowed to withdraw their names one court ruled. An attempt to push through a parent trigger law failed recently in Florida. (Sorry I don't have time to include all the links).

This movie is a fictionalized version of PT laws in that a majority of the teachers also have to vote, which on the surface seems like a pro-teacher point of view which is what the movie is pushing. Of course they are voting to turn themselves into non-unionized teachers, I guess something a corps of Teach for America might do. (By the way, the concert tonight will raise funds for TFA amongst other orgs.)

Jose Vilson tackles the point about the so-called teacher voice in the movie:

Parent Trigger And Why We Need To Talk [Let's Be A Solution]

A call has been issued to parents and teachers here in NYC to hold protest event at the September 28 premiere of "Won't Back Down" similar to what was done at the premiere of "Waiting for Superman" two years ago. GEM, ICE, MORE, Change the Stakes and others have been notified and a committee to Stand Up to Won't Back Down (can we call it SUWD?) hopefully will be formed by the end of the month. Some of us envision rolling out those red Real Reform capes.
This caused some comment:
We can’t attack frustrated working class parents, nor teachers who want to fight for change. It would seem to me that we have to say that
1)      We need to fight for all students,
2)      Teachers, and their unions, are not the enemies,
3)      The system is at fault; it can’t and won’t educate all working class students.
4)      The same folks financing the movie are the same capitalists who’ve created the problem.

It’s a fine line, but….
It is a fine line, more than Waiting for Superman. But the backers of the film pretty much cinch the case for holding a protest. We'll see if something gets off the ground. I do admit that after fighting the old line pre-Bloomberg bureaucracy, the political ed machines and the UFT/Unity gang since 1970 sometimes movies like this or elements of the charter movement do appeal to me and taking a stand against them is a fine line. When the people running the unions are if not enemies, obstructions, exactly what approach do you take? We had the same problem in our movie -- while we defended teacher unions we also tried to make a point that they were not doing enough to defend public education though we didn't go into details. (We need a movie just to deal with that.)
Diane Ravitch posts today:

About that “Teachers Rock” Concert

Here's another thought.  You could also contact the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the American Federation of Musicians to express your opinion about this situation.  It does seem a little odd that professionals in these unions would take part in a production that is sponsored and promoted by private parties intent on disparaging professionals in a different union.  Just saying.

George Schmidt has a good take on "Won't Back Down."

Won't back down...' is latest Hollywood addition to the 'Waiting for Superman' propaganda trail. Teacher bashing. Union busting. Privatization agenda again on display thanks to Hollywood moguls and brain-dead stars


Recently, the preliminary propaganda for the upcoming Hollywood movie "Won't Back Down" has caught the eye of many of us and sadly misled some of us (including this reporter). A closer look at the pre-release propaganda for the movie and the agendas of the movie's creators and promoters gives everyone an idea of what we're facing. And what we will be facing is that latest iteration of the "Waiting for Superman" genre of pro-charter school attacks on public school teachers, unions, and the public schools themselves.

Union members across the country are beginning to ask why union actors and actresses like Maggie Gyllenhaal (above) are working like dogs to produce union-busting and teacher bashing propaganda like "Won't Back Down" for the right wing propagandists who have begun a new generation of anti-public school media work since "Waiting for Superman" two years agoThe best comprehensive analysis of what is looming came to us through Oakland and friends there. This was an email from Sharon Higgins (sharonrhiggins@yahoo.com) that arrived at Substance on August 9, 2012.

“Won’t Back Down” (WBD) is pure, unadulterated propaganda which was designed to stimulate intense emotional support for The Parent Trigger. WBD was produced by Walden Media, as was “Waiting for Superman,” its documentary predecessor. It is strongly believed that one major reason "Waiting for Superman" failed to even get nominated for an Oscar because the director had staged scenes.

Walden Media is owned by Philip Anschutz, an extremely conservative Colorado billionaire and major donor to right-wing causes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Anschutz
The Parent Trigger was originally conceived by a phony grassroots organization birthed from a charter chain in Southern California (Green Dot Public Schools). More about that here:

http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/connections-between-eli-broad-parent.html
Union teachers and other union activists are expected to picket and protest at the opening of the latest union-busting Hollywood propaganda film, "Won't Back Down" when the film opens in September. Like the 2010 movie "Waiting for Superman," "Won't Back Down" is a slick propaganda piece promoting charter schools and bashing real public schools, real public school teachers, and teacher unions.Then the idea was picked up by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) who then wrote model legislation for The Parent Trigger Act. The text was adopted by the Education Task Force at ALEC’s 2010 States & Nation Policy Summit in December 2010, then approved by the ALEC Board of Directors in January 2011.”

ALEC had the document posted on their website for a while, but then removed it at some point. The cached document can still be seen here: http://www.webcitation.org/5yGOUW6Ll

Scrubbing that document and revising parts of their website came about with the growing awareness of ALEC – and the accompanying outrage – which occurred in late 2011 and earlier this year, much of which resulted from the work of this group:
http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

The corporate ed reformers who are pushing privatization are subjecting American citizens to a propaganda campaign to advance their agenda. Michelle Rhee is a big part of it, and that is why her organization, StudentsFirst, has collaborated with many of the Tea Party-type governors who are intent on crippling what remains of public education.

“Won’t Back Down” has now become a part of the long and extensive history of propaganda film making. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_film
The hype for WBD started to get underway last week in NYC w/a promotional screening, and it will be non-stop for the next few months. It has also been timed to coincide with other efforts.

Parents Across America has also done a critique of it: http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2012/06/parents-give-wont-back-down-movie-trailer-a-thumbs-down/?utm_source=8-9-12&utm_campaign=8-9-12&utm_medium=email

More
 Diane Ravitch here.

Some satire at http://studentslast.blogspot.com/:

Stoning Teachers Raises Some Eyebrows - with Updates

More from Chicago:

Chicago Parents Urge Streep Avoid Parent Trigger Movie Event

As one Chicago parents group's blog (Parents United for Responsible Education: Building powerful public school parents and communities) notes, the education deform / privatization forces are in full propaganda war mode as they push the pro-parent trigger movie, "Won't Back Down." Parents United for Responsible Education publicized the letter it sent to acclaimed actress Meryl Streep, asking her to avoid a promo "Teachers Rock" subterfuge event for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promoted film.


Blogger New York City Eye asks other progressive pro-student, pro-parent, pro-teachers to likewise petition Streep and other Hollywood media heavies to distance themselves from or renounce the mean undertoned "Won't Back Down."
Immediately after this letter I have posted contact information for personalities connected to the "Won't Back Down" film.

PURE's letter's text appears below:


Dear Meryl

August 10th, 2012

Ms. Meryl Streep

c/o Leslee Dart

Dart Group

sent by facsimile

212 277 7550



If you really appreciate teachers, please pull out of

phony “Teachers Rock” event promoting

the themes of the “Won’t Back Down” movie:

public school privatization and wholesale teacher firing



Dear Ms Streep:

I am writing to ask you to reconsider your participation in the “Teachers Rock” event next week. As parents, we are concerned that this event is part of a larger propaganda campaign to force privatization on public schools. The movie, “Won’t Back Down,” is just the latest and most intensive move in this effort.

While we have been unable to view the entire movie, we have seen the trailer and read promotional stories that are already being published. We also know that the producer, Walden Media and Philip Anschutz, were behind the “Waiting for Superman” documentary whose one-sided and often misleading content created a great deal of controversy among those of us who strongly support our nation’s teachers. Even Roger Ebert eventually rethought his positive “Superman” review.

“Won’t Back Down” is poised to be equally if not more controversial because it claims to be “based on real events” about the “parent trigger law” which allows parents to sign petitions to close their school and turn it into a charter school.

As an active and informed parent, I know that parent empowerment is not the real agenda behind this so-called parent trigger law. It was in fact written by the head of a charter management company which initiated the first parent trigger campaign. The law was taken up by ALEC and has been pushed in a number of other states with generous financial backing of the Walton Foundation (which is sponsoring “Teacher Rocks”) and other corporate school reform funders.

Our small Chicago organization and a larger network with which we are affiliated, Parents Across America, are working to get out the truth about “Won’t Back Down.” We can’t afford to put on a big show or produce a Hollywood movie to make our voices heard, but we do hope you will listen to us. You can find more information about this issue on our web sites, www.pureparents,org and www.parentsacrtossamerica.org.

Thank you so much for your attention.

Best wishes,

Julie Woestehoff

Executive Director

PURE's previous post:
Time to tweet some stars about the Won’t Back Down movie

August 10th, 2012
The propaganda campaign for the parent trigger law created by charter school operators and promoted by ALEC is in full swing.

The big kick-off event is a concert called “Teachers Rock.” Like the “parent tricker” itself, this concert pretends to honor teachers while promoting a movie, “Won’t Back Down,” that is designed to get a lot of them fired and replaced by Teach for America newbies.

The concert will take place this Tuesday, Aug, 14th, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. CBS will air a one-hour special using footage from the concert and the WBD movie, tributes to teachers from stars, etc. on Friday, Aug. 17th, at 8 pm EDT.

We know that most of the performers, like the actors in the movie, don’t have a clue how they are being used to promote school privatization in the guise of parent empowerment, but this concert and WBD movie are going to put the issue front and center and we need to make sure that our voices are heard.

Here’s what you can do:

PAA and I have written about the Won’t Back Down movie before, but if you don’t remember details, take a few moments to read PAA’s review of the WBD movie trailer (which is all we have been able to see so far – we are requesting a screening) and fact sheet on the WBD movie.

Then reach out to everyone you can about this movie and concert. This movie is designed to be even more powerful than Waiting for Superman, and we need to counter it with every thing we have. How do you fight Hollywood? Make the movie controversial, not feel-good. Take it to the stars who mean well but need to open their eyes to what they are doing. Everyone needs to write to CBS, too.

Everyone wants to write to a star, right? A list of contact info for a few of those involved in the Teachers Rock concert follows (gleaned from posters on Diane Ravitch’s blog). The easiest thing to do is to facebook and tweet them, keeping on mind that they are not the enemy. Post your thoughts on their facebook pages, twitter feeds, use their e-mails, write to their publicist! This is the big one and we need all hands on board!

I’ll post my letter the Meryl Streep next.

Here are a few message points:

*The Won’t Back Down movie and the 8/17 Teacher Rocks concert are propaganda for the parent trigger law created by charter school operators and promoted by ALEC.
*Won”t Back Down is a “feel-bad” movie for parents and teachers who support public education.
*The controversial WBD movie promotes charter takeovers of schools, yet charter schools are no better than our regular schools.
*No real teachers were depicted in the filming of the WBD movie.
*Parents won’t be fooled by the “Parent Tricker” or the Won’t Back Down movie.

Teachers Rock performers:
1. Dave Grohl: Manager-Gabby at 323-856-8222
2. Adam Levine: Receptionist will take message at 310-776-7640
3. Jack Black: email to sjackson_asst@WMEentertainment.com
4. Meryl Streep: publicist’s voice mail at 212-277-7555
5. Viola Davis: email to ewolff@apanewyork.com
6. Morgan Freeman: email to stan@sra-pr.com

More:
1. Dave Grohl – Foo Fighters – Agent: Don Muller – WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
2. Adam Levine – Maroon 5 singer – Manger: Career Artist Management – 1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 1100 | Los Angeles, CA 90024 | 310.776.7640 (p) | 310.776.7659 (f)
3. Jack Black – Agent: WME 1325 Avenue Of The Americas, New York, NY 10019 T.212.586.5100 F.212.246.3583
4. Meryl Streep – Publicist: Leslee Dart. Dart Group. 90 Park Avenue. 19th Floor. New York, NY 10016. Phone: 212-277-7555.
5. Viola Davis – Agent: Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) 45 West 45th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10036 T. 212.687.0092 F. 212.245.5062
6. Morgan Freeman – Publicist: Stan Rosenfield & Associates, Inc., 2029 Century Park E., Suite 1190, Los Angeles, CA 90067, USA. Phone: (310) 286-7474, Fax: (310) 286-2255.
7. Josh Groban
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal (last, but not least)

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Monday, August 13, 2012

GEM/ATR Committee issues statement

This was posted at NYCATR blog. We formed this committee a year ago and have a listserve to keep ATRs informed. If you know an ATR or are just interested in being informed (Ich Bein an ATR) as all teachers are potential ATRs. The Campbell Brown story dovetails in here as part of the general assault on teacher protections.

GEM/ATR Committee issues statement

The GEM/ATR Committee has issued a statement in response to the recent arbitrator's decision that saved hundreds of teachers from being assigned to the ATR pool. The Committee's statement is presented here verbatim; only the occasional bold typeface is the addition of NYCATR.



August 11, 2012
1) The UFT is to be applauded for its efforts to defeat the DOE's efforts to vilify veteran teachers and send teachers in the 24 turnaround schools into the ATR pool. The arbitrator said that the DOE was wrong in making teachers reapply for their positions.
However, we call upon the president to extend the same commitment of protection to teachers that have been excessed prior to this June.
This tactic of closing down schools is an old one under Bloomberg, Klein, Black and Walcott. The only thing that is different with the present instance is that the DOE was trying to close schools and circumvent the messy PEP process that resulted in organized community opposition and lawsuits.
There is now court precedent on our side. In New York State on July 24, Judge Joan Lobis sustained the arbitrator’s position by saying that teachers’ contracts must be respected. (290 82nd 338) In Louisiana on June 20, Judge Ethel Simms Julien used the same reasoning to say that 7,000 post-Katrina school employees were wrongly fired in New Orleans. (As this last example is in another state, this can be deemed “persuasive” in a legal argument application for our state.)
While the teachers in the 24 turnaround schools have been saved, it is important to not forget the teachers new to the ATR pool from schools that the DOE has successfully shut down and the prior generation of ATRs. The UFT must insist on a hiring freeze until ATRs have been placed, as it did on September 12, 2007.* 
The excessed teachers are not the causes for "failing schools." The schools the DOE targets for closure disproportionately have low income students, high percentages of special education and ELL students.
1-a) Stop the Lockout
It's time that Mulgrew and the UFT defend all of the ATRs and fight for their placement, just as hard as they fought for the preservation of the positions of the teachers in the 24 schools slated for "closing." 
ATRs are being locked out of positions.
i) ATRs go unhired while novice teachers, many fresh out of college or education school, are placed in positions. We call for the termination of the new replacement workers and for their replacement by ATRs.
ii) Adding insult to injury, workers with the title of teacher are the one class of UFT professional that is forced on a weekly sojourn. The DOE is placing guidance counselors, social workers, librarians and paraprofessionals in full-school year assignments. 
iii) ATRs are asked during job interviews to demonstrate their competency in new teaching protocols: Common Core, workshop model, Danielson Method. Novice teachers are given preferential treatment with summer training in these areas. We call for the termination of novice training and for the offering of training to ATRs.
1-b) No to ending careers with buy-outs
The UFT leadership’s talk of a buy-out is a caving in to the DOE's harassment of ATRs. Mulgrew did not defend the ATRs' teaching integrity when the DOE spoke of the ATRs as dead-weight during the May news reports of buy-out talks.
1-c) No to observations of ATRs
Observations of ATRs beginning in the 2011-2012 are another product of a side agreement to contracts. It is inappropriate for teachers to be observed with students that they have just met, with students that know that the lesson is just a sample lesson.
2) No more side-agreements to contracts
The UFT must stop making agreements to the status of ATRs outside of the contract process. In these side agreements the city is biting off, in piecemeal fashion, contract protections of senior teachers. As an example, on April 15, 2010, and in the summer of 2011 the DOE and the UFT made an ATR agreement without any input from ATRs or other rank and file members of the UFT. These side agreements are made without the sort of membership vote to which contracts are subjected. Yet, the agreements carry the same powerful weight that contracts carry.
3) Dues equity for ATRs: Elected reps of ATRs’ choosing
Furthermore, the UFT must stop its opposition to the ATRs' practice of their electoral rights. ATRs have no venue by which to vote for representatives that come from their ranks to express their interests. Other distinctive groups, such as paraprofessionals and career and technical school teachers have their special divisions. ATRs, with ranks at an estimated 830, equal the size of teaching staffs at about ten large schools put together. For the reasons of parity, ATRs must have elected representatives at the boro level. 
The UFT held during the 2011 to 2012 year that ATRs could vote in whatever school that they were serving for a given week. This is disingenuous. How can an ATR within a few days size up the main issues at a given school and properly weigh the strengths and weaknesses of two or three candidates at the school? It is further unfair to the staff in the school in question. ATRs, as outsiders, in close races could tip elections, affecting the outcome for the staff to be represented at that school. 
The UFT needs to recognize that we are not in a temporary status. It knows, full well, that principals are not inclined to hire them, due to their senior salary level. There is no valid rationale in opposing chapters and representatives with the argument that giving ATRs representation will institutionalize their status. Given that many ATRs have been in this status for more than two years, they already have an institutionalized status by default.
*"Dispelling rumors that their jobs might be in jeopardy, Weingarten made clear that teachers who find themselves working as ATRs maintain their salary benefits and cannot be fired or laid off thanks to a job-security guarantee that the UFT secured in the 2005 contract.
"At a Sept. 12 [2007] labor-management meeting that Weingarten requested on the treatment of excessed teachers, UFT officials called for a moratorium on new hiring until vacancies are filled by current ATRs in the district or high school superintendency provided they have the appropriate license.
"'Filling vacancies with ATRs meets both federal and state requirements related to having a 'highly qualified teacher' in every classroom,' said Weingarten.'"
"DOE officials agreed at the Sept. 12 meeting to modify the new school financing system to encourage principals to hire ATRs. The school will get filled for the first year as if the teacher were a new hire and for the second year at 50 percent of the teacher's actual salary before assuming the cost of the actual salary before assuming the cost of the teacher's actual salary in the teacher's third year at the school.
"UFT officials also urged the DOE, in the next open market transfer period, to require that principals grant interviews, in seniority order, to ATRs with the appropriate license to fill vacancies before new recruits are interviewed or hired. Principals should also be required to put in writing why the ATR was nor hired for the position, the union said.
"The UFT also demanded that all ATRs be allowed access to all DOE job fairs. The union made the demand after receiving word that the DOE barred ATRs from attending job fairs for prospective new teachers last spring." New York Teacher, Sept. 20, 2007.


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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.