How Do I Choose a Montessori School?

I had my first official blog email question, and by someone other than one of my seven official followers! This must be why I am doing this. :)

Question: "I heard that any school can call itself Montessori. Is that true? How do I know it's a good school?"
Answer: Yes! It's true! Any school can call themselves Montessori. Scary! You can evaluate a school pretty effectively through observation and discussion with the director and other parents.


OBSERVATION
You MUST observe in the classroom while students are present. If you are not allowed to observe, be concerned. What are they trying to hide? You should be expected to sit quietly and inconspicuously and not talk to the students or teacher unless approached. Look for teaching style, student behavior, and classroom layout/materials.

Movement: You should see the teacher moving around the room meeting with small groups or individuals. You should see students helping each other and helping themselves to work on the shelves and supplies. There will be work and students on the floor. It may look chaotic and messy, so try to focus your attention on one or two students at first to see what they are doing. Everyone will be working on something different.

Range of Ages: There will be a range of ages present in the classroom: 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, etc. If there is only one age present, be concerned. A range of ages provides leadership for older students and community for all. It also lends itself to the division of the planes of development. I could keep going, but that's another post.

Inviting Decor: The classroom should look inviting and the furniture arranged so it is easy for children to work in small groups or alone. Materials are organized neatly by subject and by level on the shelves. Artwork is hung at the child's eye level. You should not see several rows of desks facing the front of the classroom or lots of brightly colored "educational" crap on the walls (a little is okay, but the classroom should ideally look like as inviting as someone's house).

Behavior: Do the children know what to do? They should be self-directed. They should know where things are and what to do with them. They will look to the teacher and each other for support at times, but they should not be relying on the teacher for constant direction. Older students will definitely have their own work plan or schedule to guide them (self-made is even better!).


DISCUSSION
Membership: Find out if the teachers are AMS or AMI trained (or something else), and if their training center is recognized by the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE). MACTE spans all of the ways you can become a Montessori teacher including AMS and AMI (and even stranger, smaller independent means of training). You can ask where the teachers were trained and look it up easily on the MACTE website. MACTE has standards, and your school should too!
Further, is the school a member of some sort of Montessori organization such as AMS? If not, why not? My local Montessori is not concerned with affiliation or accreditation due to the high cost and the lack of interest of parents which leads me to my next point...

Teacher and Parent Education: What opportunities are available for continuing teacher education? Do they attend conferences or have opportunities for additional training? Do they have degrees in something education- or child-development-related? Is there a parent's association of sorts and is there a piece within that that seeks to educate parents and families about the Montessori method? Do administrators and teachers regularly communicate with parents? Do the seek community involvement? And lastly, do they want your help? I hope the answer to all of these questions is yes! If no, something may be lacking.

What Parents Are Saying: I leave this a bit open-ended because parents can give you details about how bullying is handled to which bar your child's teacher frequents. At my daughter's Montessori preschool, I heard from two separate sources beforehand that it wasn't "real Montessori" and now I am left wondering... what is "real Montessori?"

Is it real Montessori?
Montessori can only be as authentic as is desired-- by the school, the families who have children there, and the community. This may be a good question to bring up-- what parts of the program are they most proud? What adjustments have they had to make to the Montessori model to fit the needs of the current student population? And (you knew this was coming): What can you do to help?

It's your job to be involved in your child's education, so be a critic and a supporter. They can do it without you, but it will work much better with your help! It's really hard to pinpoint what makes a good school. If you're committed to Montessori, you know that test scores is not necessarily an indicator of learning. In the end, go with your gut and don't be afraid to change your decision if it doesn't work. Montessori isn't the only answer to a good education, but I believe it's the best way we have.

I bet I missed something. What else?