Organizing principles
Building a World-Class Montessori School - An Uncompromising Commitment To Excellence
By Tim Seldin, President, The Montessori Foundation
Over the last 18 years, several hundred Montessori schools around the world have come to the Montessori Foundation for guidance as they take the journey toward becoming being strong, stable, highly effective and authentic Montessori schools. Jonathan Wolff and I call this process “building a world-class Montessori school.”
This can be a daunting task. It normally requires years of hard work and a considerable amount of money. Once begun, it is crucial that a school not back off from its commitment to excellence. The school must be prepared to meet raised expectations among parents and staff and must follow through on the commitments that it makes to the school community. This is not something to be undertaken lightly.
Here are the key principles that we consider most important in building a Montessori School that is based on partnership and an uncompromising commitment to excellence. We have followed them ourselves over the years since we first began to develop the School:
Principle 1: Make an uncompromising commitment to becoming excellent in all areas of your school's programs, facilities, resources and operations!
Clearly define the School's identity, mission, and core values.
Seek out and turn to examples of true excellence in Montessori practice around the world.
Consciously define what excellence will look like in every aspect of the School's programs, facilities, and operations.
Plan for how you will create and maintain this excellence in each area.
Determine what it will cost to create and sustain excellence in all areas, even if it cannot all be done in the first year, and have develop a plan for funding it.
Principle 2: Ensure that your school has a strong sense of institutional memory and institutional integrity.
A school lives in the minds and vision of a group of people. No school can be great without a clear sense of its core values and the culture of the institution: this is who we are and how we do things here.
The character of any school will evolve, but it should evolve slowly and in a logical progression of maturation. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for Montessori schools to make compromises that threaten the integrity of their program because of tight budgets, lack of parent understanding and support, or because Montessori trained teachers are hard to find.
What we say our school does and the principles in which we believe must be translated into day-to-day reality. A great school stands for something distinct. It cannot possibly please everyone. The school that some deeply respect and admire will have no appeal for others.
Principle 3: Carefully define and set down in writing your school’s mission, core values and educational beliefs. Make all policies and strategic decisions on the basis of these core values.
Many schools assume that Montessori means the same thing to everyone, but in fact, many Montessori schools are made up of individual teachers who do their own thing in their classrooms, without much awareness or concern about coordination with the other classes within the school. As a result, it is not unusual to find Montessori schools made up of several classrooms that bear little resemblance to one another. Parents and teachers often hold very different perspectives of the school’s mission, philosophy, and priorities.
The ideas that define the nature of a school are the very soul of the school as an institution. It is essential to have clear understanding and agreement about your mission, vision, and core values. Only by going through this process, with the goal of developing clarity and consistency from class to class and level to level, can you discover to define the true nature of the school as you want it to be.
Principle 4: Ensure that your school is consistent in philosophy and practice from class to class, from one level to the next, and from year to year.
Many Montessori schools are made up of individual teachers who do their own thing in their classrooms, without much awareness or concern about coordination with the other classes within the school. Parents should be confident that their child's experience in the school will be highly consistent from year to year, from one class to another and from one level to the next.
Principle 5: Ensure that your school is always led by inspiring and consensus-building Montessori Leaders.
Montessori schools wishing to remain faithful to their legacy need to be led by a first-rate Montessori educator. To be true to the underlying principles that distinguish them as Montessori programs, they will follow a different ethos about the nature of learning, the definition of what constitutes a first rate education, and the relationships among students, educators, families, and school.
Research has consistently shown that the Principal is the most influential person in any school. In great schools, the Head is above all a visionary who articulates and represents the core values and educational philosophy of the school. He or she is not an administrator or business manager. Such skills are important, but can be hired much more readily than a great educational leader. A first rate Headmaster can build a school from the ground up. One made up of lesser stuff will usually lead a school into stagnation or dissention and low morale.
It is rare to find someone who is both a sophisticated independent school Head who is also trained and committed to Montessori education.
While many non-Montessori trained educators can glibly espouse a Montessori-like philosophy and values, few actually understand or pay much more than lip service to it in practice. A Head of School who is not Montessori in both training and philosophical orientation will normally be ineffective as the school’s educational leader, can easily get into conflict with the faculty, or in some cases will lead the school away from Montessori toward a traditional educational program based on domination and external rewards rather than partnership and trust, competition and “high” expectations instead of joyful scholarship.
Can you imagine asking a Catholic priest to run a Baptist based school, or a rabbi to head a school run by Quakers? Even with all the good will in the world, they are unlikely to share the culture, traditions, and values of the school community; and would not be likely to be seen by faculty and parents as appropriate leaders for this school.
At their core, authentic Montessori schools are based on an educational philosophy and a system of beliefs as distinct as those of any school that promotes a specific religion or a culture quite different from the one held by most people in the local community. We strongly believe that Montessori schools need sound Montessori leadership if they are to thrive. Not to do so endangers the integrity and future of the school.
Principle 6: Ensure that there is a clear line of authority and accountability within the school.
Once a Head of School has been hired, he/she should be in charge of the entire school. All faculty and staff members should report to the head. The Head should have clear day-to-day authority over the school’s programs and practice.
Sadly, all to often we see confusion between the roles of the Board and Head of School. It is not uncommon to see Board members performing administrative functions or making decisions traditionally made by the Head. Many of these schools are characterized by mistrust and conflict among the head, the board and the faculty. This has the very real potential to destabilize the school.
Heads must be given the authority to manage the school within very broad guidelines established by the board. For your school to continue along the lines of a caring, supportive, empowering community, it will always be essential to have a Head with the right balance of perspective, values, philosophy, skills, and experience. Finding the right person when you need one for your school is no mean feat.
All too many fine Montessori schools have suffered through a series of weak or disruptive leaders after the Founder retires. In almost every case, these Heads were neither Montessori trained nor Montessori oriented in their educational philosophy or their leadership style.
We can all name non-Montessori-trained people who are highly effective Montessori leaders. However, each is “Montessori” in everything but a teaching credential. Each is truly are committed to the Montessori vision.
Principle 7: Give your admissions process the highest priority and design it to find families for whom the school is a perfect match, not just to fill openings.
The process of admissions must be a Montessori school’s single biggest priority. Our goal should not only be to fill each opening and thus meet our budget, but to gather together children who will blossom within a Montessori setting and families for whom our school is almost a perfect match with their values and long-term goals for their children.
Relatively few parents leave Montessori because of cost per se, or because they are particularly unhappy with what we have done. Rather, most leave because there is a cost (tuition) involved with continuing in Montessori, whereas public schools are free and often more convenient.
Whether they decide to move their children to a more traditional private school or to the local public schools, parents leave Montessori because they have not been convinced that our schools offer their children opportunities for intellectual and social growth that are equal to and better in some special way than the other schools in our community.
Too many families place their children in Montessori with little or no knowledge of what it is and what it offers, and certainly with no real thought given to any relationship beyond the next year or so. Like each of us, these families are simply looking for the best opportunities for their children.
However, as Montessori schools we need to find people who are willing to work with us as partners. We need families who share core values and goals for their children’s education that are compatible with those of the school, with full commitment to ensuring that our school before they apply. We need to challenge them to think long-term, weighing out carefully whether or not Montessori is the right fit for both their children and for their family’s values before they enroll.
Here are a few basic suggestions:
* Hold an Open House every week during the school day. Use it not only for a tour when the children are present, but as an introductory seminar for prospective parents.
* Schedule a year-round series of seminars titled ‘Is Montessori Right For You And Your Child?’ to explain the key points about Montessori to prospective parents. Require both parents to attend as part of the application process.
* Create a volunteer association of committed parents who are willing to serve as ambassadors to your school. Be sure that the ambassadors are well informed about the school. Publish a list of Ambassadors who are willing to give a reference fir the school when a prospective parents call.
* Invite Ambassador parents to participate in the admissions process. Remember, the goal is not to get every parent to apply, but to find those for whom the school is a good fit.
* Require fathers to participate in the admissions process. Focus as much attention on their values and attitudes as on the mothers’ values and attitudes.
Principle 8: Keep parents very well informed about their children’s education and academic progress.
Parents expect to have many points of tangible evidence confirming the wisdom of their decision and the effectiveness of the education that their children are receiving.
Most parents do not simply look for academic evidence alone. We should not underestimate how important social opportunities and extracurricular programs are to most children and their parents.
* Parent-Teacher conferences are very important, and most parents expect and appreciate a one-on-one meeting with their child's teachers at least twice a year, even though some may grumble or resist having to take the time from work to come in to school. Parents normally need confirmation every few months that their children are doing well and happy. If not, they will often start looking at new school options.
* Written Progress Reports are equally important and an essential communication tool. Because Montessori Schools do not compare students against an arbitrary standard or the performance of their classmates, familiar letter grades are rarely used. Narratives are generally considered the ideal and represent an excellent opportunity to communicate with parents about both the children's development and how the Montessori program is contributing to their growth. We recommend that schools have the teachers prepare a written narrative evaluation of the student’s work, social development, and mastery of fundamental skills twice a year, in January and May.
* Test Results - Many Montessori schools do not believe in testing children. They argue that the tests are inaccurate, misleading, and stressful for children. Any good teacher who works with the same children for three years and carefully observes their work knows far more about their progress than will be revealed on any paper and pencil test.
Unfortunately, many parents see test results as the only objective evidence available of how well their children are doing in comparison to children attending traditional schools. Further, in our culture, test taking skills are just another practical life lesson that children need to master sooner or later.
The Montessori Foundation recommends that schools use standardized tests and regularly give students quizzes on the concepts and skills that they have been studying. The problem with tests is how they have been used and interpreted in other schools, rather than with challenging students to demonstrate skills and knowledge. When tests are used as a feedback loop, at times indicating that a student needs a new lesson and more practice, instead of a mark of shame and failure, then they can be quite useful.
* Homework assignments are for many parents the most visible sign of what's being taught and how well their child is doing. Some parents are quite happy if the school doesn’t assign homework; it interferes with their evening time and forces them to get involved in ways that they may prefer to avoid. It is more common to find that parents will question a school's academic standards if elementary children are not asked to do any work at home. If the school assigns too much work a night, or if the assignments clearly represent busy work, most parents will complain. On the other hand, when they perceive that homework is appropriately challenging and interesting, they will tend to believe that the school is setting high standards and expectations.
* Corrected Assignments - If parents sense that no one is checking their child's work for quality and accuracy, and insisting that sloppy work be done over, most will seriously question the teacher's standards and credibility.
* Study Guides: At the elementary and middle school levels, student's work plans are typically divided between teacher assigned basic expectations, and reading and research initiated by the student's individual interests. Some Montessori schools send home a weekly Study Guide with older students that sets forth the goals, expectations, and assignments for the week ahead for both in-class work and at-home assignments. They will often be customized for individual students.
* V.I.P. Nights: Many Montessori schools hold V.I.P., “Very Important People” Nights in the fall and spring. Students get to bring two people (normally their parents) to school. On People Night, parents become the students and the children show them how to do the actual work that they are doing in class.
Principle 9: Make every possible effort to bring your attrition to the lowest level possible, ideally 10% or less in any one year.
Every year our hearts sink when the parents of a terrific Montessori child gently breaks the news that, after two perfect years with our school, next year little Samantha will be moving on to public kindergarten or a prestigious private school rather than continuing in Montessori.
After they express their appreciation for everything that we’ve done and swear that they’ll tell everyone they know about the wonderful head start that we’ve given their children, our schools are left as another of next year’s five-year-old role models walks out the door.
Ironically, these families rarely leave one at a time. When parents decide to transfer their child to another school, its just human nature that they will try to justify their decision to others, and hey commonly influence friends with children in your school to join them.
A Montessori child really never can be replaced! Even when we can find another child to replace the one who’s left, it would be ten times better to build a school with students and families who have "grown-up Montessori." The truth in this statement lies not simply in the difficulty in finding other children who are able to successfully adapt to our program at the elementary or beyond levels. The far more important fact is that our schools are designed to be communities of children and adults.
Every time one of our children leaves our school we not only lose the experience and leadership of those older children to set the tone and example for younger children, but our children learn to become accustomed to the repeated loss of their closest friends. It is no wonder that so many of our children and parents tend to drift away. We’ve taught them to care so deeply for one another, and as their community unravels, they begin to ask when it will be their turn to leave. We don’t want them to learn the lesson that everyone leaves, but rather the lesson that our community lasts a lifetime.
* Be sure that parents perceive that teachers communicate clearly that they like and respect the children and their family. This should be demonstrated through teacher initiated monthly telephone contact, personalized notes (especially one's that share something nice that happened in school), and face-to-face meetings.
* Parents often complain that they rarely hear from teachers unless there is a problem. Many feel that they have to initiate important communication, whereas they clearly expect schools to take the lead.
* Just as regular patrons of a restaurant love it when the owner warmly greets them by name and gives them special attention, so do families normally respond when they are warmly greeted every day and called by name. Parents begin to bond with a school that communicates warmth, credibility, diplomacy, and a sincere interest in their child.
* Develop a strong extra-curricular programs in athletics, theater, music, art, clubs, and other activities that will interest elementary and secondary students and address parent concerns about Montessori being too limiting.
* Even if you need to use scholarships to fund it, ensure that you have enough students in your older classes to create a viable peer group. Students almost always leave if they feel they don’t have many friends who are their own age.
* Encourage parent participation as volunteers in the classroom or as guests or chaperones in special programs and experiences that underscore the unique character of the school, such as exceptionally exciting field trips, guest speakers, visiting performing groups, science fairs, plays, or festivals.
* Offer parent education programs that succinctly explain the nature and scope of the entire program: both academic and character development.
* Sponsor Montessori Parenting Conferences: The New Gate School in Sarasota, Florida hosts for weekend parenting conferences a year that are open to the entire community. Run like a mini-convention, parents register to attend workshops introducing the Montessori approach and on a wide-range of interest to parents, such as helping children learn about money, nutrition, family celebrations, positive parenting, working with infants and toddlers, coping with divorce, summer camp programs in the community, and selecting the right school.
* Publish news about special programs and experiences at school that underscore its unique character: Monthly letters sent home from the classroom teachers; articles in the weekly or biweekly school newsletter that spotlight children's progress or special programs and experiences; articles about the school in the local media. Announcements of upcoming special events at school (open houses, international festivals, plays, workshops, fund raisers, etc.) that are open to the public, in the free community announcements in the local newspapers, radio, TV, or cable.
* Student Self-evaluations: Many Montessori schools have older students prepare a self-evaluation of the reporting period just ended, in lieu of or in addition to teacher-prepared narratives. When completed, the students go over their self-evaluations with the teachers, who may add their comments and observations. The students present their self-evaluations to their parents at the upcoming family conference.
* Class Meetings: We recommend that Montessori schools schedule one evening a month during the school year where the parents of each class meet together with their children’s teachers. Their conversations typically include a review of the past month, special units just completed, and a look ahead at upcoming special lessons and activities. This gives parents and teachers an opportunity to acknowledge one another and explore questions that normally come up about the educational program. Some schools use these evenings as parent forums to discuss ideas brought forth in articles from Tomorrow's Child.
* Community Meetings: After the classroom meetings are over, we hold a monthly Community Meeting which is open to all parents, teachers, administrators, trustees, and interest students. The Community Meeting discusses issues of general interest and offers its feedback and advice to the board and administration. Parents and teachers who participate tend to gain a much deeper understanding of the school's mission, strengths, and the issues that challenge it. They treasure the opportunity to have a direct voice in the life of the school.
* Portfolios of Student Work: In the late fall, winter, and spring go through the children's completed work and make selections together for their portfolios. The portfolio itself is a 4" three ring binder with clear plastic sleeves for a cover and spine card, filled with perhaps 100 plastic page protectors. The student presents the completed portfolio to his or her parents at the upcoming parent conference. At year's end, it becomes a permanent record of the child's best drawings, math problems, stories, spelling words, essays, and special reports, possibly along with photos take at school, the teacher's narrative reports, the child's self-evaluations, etc.
* Self-Study Leading to Accreditation for your School: One of the best ways to help a significant number of parents gain a deep and realistic insight into the challenges and opportunities facing the school is to begin the one or two-year self-study process leading to accreditation by one of the state, regional or national groups that accredit Montessori schools.
* Establish a Parenting Center Encourage parents to participate in programs designed to help them refine their parenting skills, ongoing support groups, and talks about a wide range of topics of interest to families.
* Develop an Ambassador Parent Program: To assist new families to smoothly integrate into the school community, match new families with families who have been with the school for several years to provide support and information.
* Encourage Support for Community Businesses Encourage and facilitate methods for members of our community to access the services of other community members.
* Expect Parents to Make a Meaningful Commitment to your School Community Expect all members of our community, students, parents, teachers and support staff to be committed, contributing members of the community, and to show support for the rules, regulations and principles established by the community, and we are prepared to support them in this effort as in some cases it may involve a paradigm shift.
Our goal is not to change parents but to gather together a close-knit community that shares common values and goals with us as a school, and who feel a commitment to the school and to one another.
Principle 10: Ensure that your school becomes financially sound.
Initially, most new schools will struggle somewhat financially as they develop local community awareness and enrollment. After those first few years, budgets not only need to be balanced, they have to lead your school to have the funds needed to create a sense of excellence.