Alice Fischer ’09
A Strategist in the Making Setting herself up to shape education policy
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lice Fischer ’09—a sophomore at Bryn Mawr College—speaks with insight beyond her 19 years. She’s excited by, and focused on, education in America. Studying sociology, with a minor in education, Alice plans on earning a graduate degree in education policy. “The ripe opportunities for improving education exist, and they don’t all require sweeping change,” says Alice. “The goals are lofty, but the steps to get there are manageable.” Interning this summer with the New York City Department of Education, Alice worked in the Office of Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners. The department is midstream in executing citywide reform, making schools and teachers accountable for the students in their districts. In past years students with learning disabilities, behavioral issues, or minor physical and mental disabilities were isolated from general students, even sent to schools outside their districts. The department argues that students with minor behavioral and learning issues, and students for whom English is a second language, thrive—have higher test scores and higher graduation rates—when they’re learning in an inclusive classroom, integrated with their peers. This spring begins the second phase of the reform: standardizing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The team that creates a student’s IEP includes the school
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Milton Magazine
administrator, primary classroom teacher, special education teacher, parents, school psychologist, a professional specializing in the student’s diagnosis, and the student himself. Teachers have struggled to implement IEPs when they don’t have clear expectations about how far along a continuum of services they are expected—or allowed—to go. “Clear expectations are essential in teaching, and they should start from the top,” says Alice. “Policy leaders need to make clear to the administrators what they are accountable for. That clarity needs to travel down the line, to the principals and then to the classroom teachers. The same way that teachers need clear expectations from their principals and district administrators, students need clear expectations to succeed. Good communication with students and parents is fundamental to that process.
“Effective communication means knowing the students, and knowing how to reach them. Are they visual or auditory learners? What’s life like outside of school? What languages do they speak at home? Communicating with other teachers is equally important: What challenges is the student facing in other classrooms? Perhaps more important, where is he or she excelling? “Especially in this integrated classroom, ‘beginning with the student’ means being flexible. That means adjusting the way your classroom is set up or the material you’re using; working collaboratively with the special ed teacher or other professionals. Teachers also need to be aware of their own biases. As soon as a teacher—however unconsciously—projects stereotypes or limitations on a student, that assumption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Flexibility is a concept with real legs in charter and magnet schools, whose popularity has boomed. These are publicly funded alternatives to traditional public schools that are built upon clear goals. “These schools allow you to get at the same fundamentals in a way that’s more accessible to some students,” says Alice. “For instance, a teacher in a public school might ask, ‘How long will it take the train to travel from point A to point B’ whereas in a marine science charter school they’d ask ‘How long do the dolphin’s sonar