茄子视频

Join our zero2eight Substack community for more discussion about the latest news in early care and education.

A classroom of 35 3-to-6 year olds might sound chaotic to some parents and teachers. But at Shaw Montessori in Phoenix, and the public schools that follow the educational model developed over a century ago, large class sizes are ideal.

鈥淭he bigger, the better, because the children depend on one another,鈥� said Principal Susan Engdall. In a Montessori classroom, 鈥渢he teacher is sparse, so children have got to be creative and figure things out.鈥� 

It鈥檚 a philosophy that not only teaches kids to solve problems, but fosters stronger reading and memory skills by the end of kindergarten than other models of early education, according to from the University of Virginia and the American Institutes for Research. The first nationwide study of public Montessori programs shows that they also achieve more positive outcomes at a lower price tag, mostly due to those larger class sizes. Over the three-year span, public Montessori programs cost $13,127 less than traditional preschool and kindergarten programs, the study found.

Angeline Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia and lead author of the report, attributed the findings to Dr. Maria Montessori鈥檚 theory on how children naturally learn through imitation, choice and the use of that teach practical skills and academic concepts.

鈥淭his is a method that a really brilliant Italian physician made up by watching children,鈥� she said. 鈥淪he studied them in free environments and said, 鈥榃hat are they like and how can we help them?鈥� 鈥澛�

The findings add more complexity to a long-running debate over whether the benefits of early childhood education fade out over time. Some studies show that children who don鈥檛 attend preschool often catch up to those who did, leading whether such programs are wise public investments. A found that students who attended Tennessee鈥檚 pre-K even had lower test scores in elementary school than those who didn鈥檛 participate.

In the new study, the results were particularly strong among children from lower-income families, but Lillard stressed that only programs that stay true to Montessori principles are likely to see such positive results. 

鈥淚 see all these schools that claim to have Montessori when what they offer is just a shadow of it or 鈥楳ontessori toys鈥� sold on the web,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 expect most of the folks implementing 鈥楳ontessomething鈥� are also trying to help children, but without [taking] time to understand the model.鈥�

鈥楩or all children鈥�

Publicly funded programs make Montessori education, long preferred by wealthy families who can afford , more accessible to low-income and working class parents. They include charter schools in a network of Montessori microschools called Wildflower, and district programs like Milwaukee鈥檚 seven Montessori schools. The district was among the first, over 50 years ago, to offer Montessori in the public sector.

One of the district鈥檚 鈥減assion points鈥� is ensuring that Montessori is not 鈥渙nly for certain kinds of people, but for all children,鈥� said Abigail Rausch, the district鈥檚 Montessori coordinator. 

Rae Johnson, whose son is now 16, said she could never have afforded a private program in Milwaukee as a single parent working at Starbucks and picking up freelance writing assignments. But Montessori seemed like a good fit for Elijah.

鈥淗e always marched to his own beat,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 knew that traditional school just was not going to work for how he operated.鈥� 

At first, Johnson didn鈥檛 understand Montessori鈥檚 emphasis on 鈥減ractical life鈥� skills, like pouring water without spilling or cutting with a knife. At 5, he would come home with a loaf of bread he baked at school.

鈥淚’m like 鈥楾his is what you did all day?鈥� But then he would be like 鈥極h mom, can we bake?鈥欌�漵he said. 鈥淭hat turned into a math lesson, like 鈥極K, if you want to make a cake, let’s do some fractions.鈥� 鈥�

The Montessori model is among the curricula used in 11 state-funded pre-K programs, according to the . Students traditionally enter Montessori at age 3, but most state-funded pre-K programs begin at age 4. That means districts often face the challenge of paying for the extra year.

The Phoenix Elementary district, which recently because of , began charging $500 per month this year for 3-year-olds entering Shaw Montessori because funds supporting the program were 鈥渘eeded elsewhere,鈥� said Engdall, the principal. The waitlist to get in dropped to zero, but at town hall meetings, she heard requests from parents for things like more field trips and hands-on learning that 鈥渁lready encompass鈥� what Montessori offers, she said. She expects demand to bounce back.

In addition to allowing children more freedom in the classroom, the Montessori method is in sync with the , Lillard said. Classrooms emphasize phonics, and their materials, like , make learning letter sounds and sight words a more concrete activity. In the study, students who won a spot in a public Montessori program through a lottery had 鈥渟ignificantly higher scores鈥� on a standardized reading test than those who didn鈥檛 get in. 

Montessori students also performed better on an that asked them to do the opposite of what the researcher said. If the adult told them to touch their head, they were supposed to touch their toes. 

Lillard speculated that the results for Montessori students might have been even stronger if the researchers hadn鈥檛 started the study the year after the pandemic, an unprecedented disruption that led to in children鈥檚 development. Because students were at home in 2020, they didn鈥檛 have an opportunity to interact in person and learn from older peers. 

鈥淐OVID impacted all classrooms, but it might have had especially strong impacts for multi-aged, peer-learning models,鈥� she said. 

Classrooms don鈥檛 have duplicate copies of the same materials, so children, Rausch said, have to practice patience and negotiation if another child is already busy with something they want to use. 鈥淗ow do you plan your day? How do you communicate with someone else? You don鈥檛 just grab it out of their hand,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e teaching these really complex skills to 3-year-olds.鈥�

In the study, Montessori students scored higher on a test of understanding other children鈥檚 perspectives than those who didn鈥檛 attend. But kids who went to more traditional preschools, or stayed home, were a little better at getting classmates to share. 

The fact that social-emotional learning programs are common in public schools, and likely teach topics like sharing, could account for the slight difference between the two groups, Lillard said.

On another test, non-Montessori kids were more likely to keep working on a difficult puzzle when Montessori children gave up 鈥� a finding that surprised the researchers. Montessori teachers encourage students to stick with a challenging task until they master it. 

鈥楢 high payoff鈥�

Overall, the results back up earlier research on public Montessori, like in South Carolina that found higher growth in math and reading among Montessori students than among those in traditional schools.

But like all studies, this one has limitations. Comparing kids who did and did not win a seat through a lottery isn鈥檛 the strongest research design. Families who apply don鈥檛 necessarily represent all families; more tend to be white and financially better off.

鈥淚t may be that there were other features of the schools that parents found desirable,鈥� said Steve Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research. He also questioned whether high absenteeism following the pandemic could have affected the results for either Montessori students or kids in the control group. 

He still thinks the results are promising, and said even non-Montessori programs could adopt multi-age classrooms that include 5-year-olds. But what the field needs is more evidence that the benefits last beyond kindergarten, he said. 

鈥淣one of this is to suggest we should ignore or discount the results, only to be cautious,鈥濃�嬧�� he said. 鈥淐ertainly, Montessori deserves more attention. There would be a high payoff to additional rigorous research.鈥�

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how The 74鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.