Three years ago, I.S. 109 was a school at risk. It is now a success. This song and music video -- written, performed and produced by the students, staff, parents and principal of I.S. 109 in Queens, NY -- has been a tool for transformation. Using “rap” to render New York State Learning Standards relevant, alive, and practical, Time to Shine serves as a tool to improve school image & student achievement…and as a model to be utilized by schools across the city and country.

Watch a Clip From "Time to Shine @ 109"

Length: 00:08:40

During a Project Liberty-funded program at City Hall Academy last summer, students from Lower East Side Preparatory and Auxiliary High Schools used filmmaking to help them explore, understand and overcome trauma. In the process, participants produced emotionally resilient PSA’s that transform fear into courage, anger into compassion and isolation into outreach.

Watch a Clip From "Emotional Rescue"

Length: 00:07:05

In Summer 2002, students from an array of Alternative High Schools undertook successive levels of inquiry and discovery from “My Space” to “Outer Space.” From intensive exploration, and with extensive research and interviews, they produced a provocative and fact-filled documentary, Life in Space, in which they declared Mars as the planet most likely to have sustained, and to someday sustain, life. That was before NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars, stunning us with pictures from the planet, and supporting what The Producers’ knew to be true. Join The Producers as they interview noted astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson of The American Museum of Natural History anew…and get a whole new view of what Mars and space exploration can teach us about earth, the universe and ourselves.

Watch a Clip From "Life In Space"

Length: 00:04:37

As part of a Project Liberty-funded program to help students overcome trauma experienced from 9/11, students from Concord High School of Staten Island used every aspect of their school -- from literature class to culinary arts, from poetry to art -- to explore and express their feelings. In the process, powerful healing and bonding takes place that is as transformative for viewers as for participants.

Watch a Clip From "Three Months at Concord"

Length: 00:03:56

As part of The Producers’ Projects’ first pilot program, 12 students from an array of Alternative High Schools examined major local, national and global events as the backdrop against which they found and expressed their own visions, voices and viewpoints. They reflected on and interviewed experts and the public about where we get our news and whether we can trust all that what we read, see and hear. A year and a half after the documentary’s Summer 2002 debut, the subject proves equally relevant and compelling. Recently, the film’s student Producers re- interviewed Marc Kusnetz and Danny Schechter, two friends who contributed to the original film and who have since written diametrically opposed books -- Operation Iraqi Freedom and Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception.

After an overview of math’s leading role in areas ranging from navigation, construction, technology, business and economy to art, music and more, students Robert F. Wagner Jr. Secondary School for Arts & Technology, Baccalaureate School for Global Education and Satellite Academy chose, for their documentary subject, to analyze the economics of car ownership versus public transportation. They measured their own travel routes in terms of mileage and time; investigated costs of car purchasing, leasing, insurance, and maintenance; compared these to the costs (in time and money) of public transportation, and interviewed an array of experts and people on the street.

After an overview of our inter-connectedness -- personal, environmental, evolutionary and more -- students from Baccalaureate School for Global Education, Robert F Wagner Jr. Secondary School for Arts & Technology and Satellite Academy chose to do a documentary on The Evolving Ecology of New York. They researched the flora, fauna, landscape and humanscape of Manhattan from glacial times through present; traveled to and interviewed experts at The American Museum of Natural History, The New York Historical Society, The New York Botanical Garden, The New York Times and elsewhere. They analyzed, for better and worse, human impact on and our responsibility for this evolving environment. And they determined that education is the key to caring about, co-existing with, preserving and stewarding our natural resources.

Students from West Side High School examine The Hudson River’s environmental health as well as its economic and social importance. They determined the health of the Hudson through water quality testing, experimentations and identification of plant and animal species; studied and documented the river’s past, present, present and future; made environmental observations and recommendations; and interviewed experts from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Coalition for a Livable West Side, the Hudson River Project and more.

Though Concord High School of Staten Island was built in 1890s and has been a fixture of its community ever since, in 2003 year it also became a new school…a wired one in which each of its students -- teens who hail from across the island -- gets a laptop and a new lease on learning. What’s important to and real for these teens? What do they think about, believe in, fear and hope? Participants learned about and used a variety of media (including music, music videos, interviews, mini-documentaries, public services announcements and more) to express themselves and their feelings, and learned valuable life, career and leadership skills along the way.

Since 1983, New York City’s Alternative Education Superintendency has served students ranging from the most challenged and challenging to the most gifted -- employing innovative and effective teaching methods that honor the different ways we learn and that instill a love of lifelong learning. In the process, the Superintendency has set the standard for numerous education models in the U.S. and abroad. This documentary explores Alternative Education values and practices from the standpoint of the administrators and teachers who have built them and the students who have benefited from them. Beyond providing a powerful piece on ways in which we learn and a moving montage of services offered and lives changed by Alternative Education, the documentary preserves and promoting the practices and legacy of the Alternative Superintendency.

As part of a 2003 Producers’ Project documentary shoot at Island Academy on Rikers Island, one student inmate says “On the outside, all school got me was here. Here, all I’ve got is school.” Subsequently, The Producers’ Project worked with Island Academy students, staff and alumni to produce an orientation video that is shown to young adult inmates upon their arrival on Rikers Island. The film informs them of their right to an education while on the Island.

When his high school students weren't “"doing the math"” producer/teacher Derek Phillips found a way to make it real for them: He married fundamental math principles and formulas to poetry, rap and dance. The result is Rapmatics, a motivational music video featuring students from Public School Repertory Company…and a movement that helps students understand the importance of math in school, careers, creativity and life. The result is math made real, vibrant and memorable.

New York City is one of the most amazing, difficult, beautiful, challenging, rewarding cities in the world. It is a city with a history unlike any other, and one of the most diverse populations on earth. In its past lurk seedy politics, riots, violence and clashes, as well as physical beauty, magnificent heroes, some of the world’s most famous artists, and an unparalleled uniqueness. In three moving and compelling vignettes, students of Lower East Side Preparatory High School tell their stories and invite your involvement, as they cover such topics as Immigration, Trash in the Subways, and Race in School.