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Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

phys.org

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Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#11

Post by f1shy »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Is “Montessori” sufficiently defined? I compared Montessori and non Montessori labeled daycares/preschools for my 3 and 4 year olds, and was unable to discern a meaningful difference in the course of the day. Edit: I ended up going with the daycare that had cameras (so that at least management could audit employees), and a livestream for the parents, which was at a non Montessori daycare. Staff turnover also seemed l…

In my experience, I would say no. Same as similar approaches (e.g. Waldorfschule)

Once I asked some advocate of the method, what was it exactly; the reply was very good and detailed, but then I pointed out institutes that “follow” the method, which were nothing as what he described. From that point, it was a mess. “Well, you must not absolutely do it that way” “there are variations” etc. I was pretty dissatisfied with the description, and was clear that is not very well defined.

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#12

Post by dfxm12 »

schainks wrote: post #9
lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Is “Montessori” sufficiently defined? I compared Montessori and non Montessori labeled daycares/preschools for my 3 and 4 year olds, and was unable to discern a meaningful difference in the course of the day. Edit: I ended up going with the daycare that had cameras (so that at least management could audit employees), and a livestream for the parents, which was at a non Montessori daycare. Staff turnover also seemed l…

There are two actual standards around this (AMI and AMS), but therm "Montessori" is mainly fungible in the day care market. The difference between these two, from my experience, is HUGE. Certified AMI schools, while a little more rigid in terms of teaching fine motor skills, generally have been better at making my kid more independent at doing things he likes to do. AMS schools are kind of wishy washy by comparison,…

How many schools of each standard has your kid been to? For how many years?

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#13

Post by themaninthedark »

mcv wrote: post #6
silisili wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The underlying cause is that only well to do parents choose Montessori. None of the pesky low income folks to throw off the test score.

These were randomised. It sounds like they eliminated this selection bias. Also, this is just about preschool. For regular school, I've grown more skeptical, because it didn't work well for either of my kids. They struggled with the independence and planning, and didn't get much done. One switched to special education during primary school and is doing excellent there (but that has much more guidance and costs more,…

So while it is randomized in the terms of who they chose to participate, the students did attend already existing schools. This could lead to selection bias from the participates, as the schools themselves are located in wealthier areas as that is where their clientèle are.

Lower income families may not have been able to take advantage of the lottery due to distance constrains thus self-opting out.

I have not read the study methodology details, the schools may have been chosen to avoid this problem but just wanted to point out that just because something say "random lottery" it may not be.

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#14

Post by giobox »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Is “Montessori” sufficiently defined? I compared Montessori and non Montessori labeled daycares/preschools for my 3 and 4 year olds, and was unable to discern a meaningful difference in the course of the day. Edit: I ended up going with the daycare that had cameras (so that at least management could audit employees), and a livestream for the parents, which was at a non Montessori daycare. Staff turnover also seemed l…

I've had similar experiences too, it's almost like trying to get a room full of software engineers to agree on a definition of "Agile".

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#15

Post by dmurray »

themaninthedark wrote: post #13
mcv wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These were randomised. It sounds like they eliminated this selection bias. Also, this is just about preschool. For regular school, I've grown more skeptical, because it didn't work well for either of my kids. They struggled with the independence and planning, and didn't get much done. One switched to special education during primary school and is doing excellent there (but that has much more guidance and costs more,…

So while it is randomized in the terms of who they chose to participate, the students did attend already existing schools. This could lead to selection bias from the participates, as the schools themselves are located in wealthier areas as that is where their clientèle are. Lower income families may not have been able to take advantage of the lottery due to distance constrains thus self-opting out. I have not read th…

But the control group was families who did opt in and who lost the lottery.

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#17

Post by cma »

dmurray wrote: post #15
themaninthedark wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So while it is randomized in the terms of who they chose to participate, the students did attend already existing schools. This could lead to selection bias from the participates, as the schools themselves are located in wealthier areas as that is where their clientèle are. Lower income families may not have been able to take advantage of the lottery due to distance constrains thus self-opting out. I have not read th…

But the control group was families who did opt in and who lost the lottery.

Still the ones who got in would be with more other students who opted in, the ones who didn't get in would be with more students who didn't opt-in to the lottery.

You would need to have a second group of those who lost the lottery and were all put into the same non-Montessori school with no others who didn't opt-in maybe.

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#18

Post by Illniyar »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Is “Montessori” sufficiently defined? I compared Montessori and non Montessori labeled daycares/preschools for my 3 and 4 year olds, and was unable to discern a meaningful difference in the course of the day. Edit: I ended up going with the daycare that had cameras (so that at least management could audit employees), and a livestream for the parents, which was at a non Montessori daycare. Staff turnover also seemed l…

From the article: "All 24 public study Montessori schools met basic Montessori criteria (SI Appendix, section 3A), but implementation varied widely. "

"The final implementation criteria for school inclusion were thus:

• At least 66% of the lead Primary classroom teachers are trained by one of the two most prominent Montessori teacher training organizations, the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) or the American Montessori Society (AMS). One school was excluded on this basis.

• No more than two adults, the trained teacher and a non-teaching assistant, in the classroom on a regular basis. No school was excluded on this basis.

• Classrooms are mixed-age, with at least 18 children ranging from 3 to 6 years old. Five schools did not mix ages so were excluded.

• At least a 2-hour uninterrupted free choice period every day. Five schools were excluded on this basis.

• Each classroom has at least 80% of the complete set of roughly 150 Montessori Primary materials, and fewer than 5% of the materials available to children in the classroom are not Montessori materials. No school was excluded for failing to meet this criterion."

So seems like the criteria for this research is fairly good.

In general though it's hard to tell if a school is Montessori or not. The method is not trademarked and anyone can claim to be a Montessori school ,or Montessori inspired etc...

There are two organizations that certify - AMI, which was created by Maria Montessori's daughter and functions mostly in Europe, and AMS which is an American organization founded by people inspired by the Montessori method.

AMI is stricter while AMS is more modern, but most places that identify as Montessori is neither.

I would say the best way to identify if a school is Montessori is first if they have mixed-age classrooms, the standard is a 3 year class (so 1-3, 4-6, 7-9...).

If all the kids in a class are in the same age, it's not Montessori.

Second, for preschool, you expect the class to be very organized with intermittent shelves and work areas, and very neat (no mountain of toys etc...) - https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=montessori+classroom

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#19

Post by turnsout »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #7

Is “Montessori” sufficiently defined? I compared Montessori and non Montessori labeled daycares/preschools for my 3 and 4 year olds, and was unable to discern a meaningful difference in the course of the day. Edit: I ended up going with the daycare that had cameras (so that at least management could audit employees), and a livestream for the parents, which was at a non Montessori daycare. Staff turnover also seemed l…

Unfortunately, Maria Montessori lost control over her name, and now literally any daycare or school can label themselves "Montessori."

Look for a school/teachers with AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) certification.

Re: Public Montessori programs strengthen learning outcomes at lower costs: study

#20

Post by technothrasher »

mcv wrote: post #6
silisili wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The underlying cause is that only well to do parents choose Montessori. None of the pesky low income folks to throw off the test score.

These were randomised. It sounds like they eliminated this selection bias. Also, this is just about preschool. For regular school, I've grown more skeptical, because it didn't work well for either of my kids. They struggled with the independence and planning, and didn't get much done. One switched to special education during primary school and is doing excellent there (but that has much more guidance and costs more,…

I think it largely depends upon the child. I thrived in a Montessori environment right through sixth grade before transitioning to a standard “prep school” and found myself way ahead of the other kids in a lot of things.

  Alternately, my son was much the same as your kid.  He struggled in a Montessori school which was very similar to the one I went to (in fact, my lower elementary teacher was the learning specialist at his school while he was there).  He couldn’t handle the open structured style of the learning, and just floundered badly. We ended up getting him into a much more structured special ed school where he succeeded and is now off doing well at college.
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