SPECIAL SECTION: Responding to NCLB
By Dennis Schapiro
A decade ago politicians arguing that our public schools have failed and that the quality of schools can be measured by the number of children achieving a passing score on a standardized test won the policy debate.
By Mark Anderson
About 18 months ago teacher Donna Kaiser wrote on these pages about the steady move in her Ft. Wayne, Ind. school district toward standardized classrooms and "teaching to the test." The result at Kaiser's Bunche Elementary, the nation's first American Montessori Society-certified public school program, was a frustrated staff of teachers who were being "forced to do more and more that wasn't Montessori," Kaiser said.
By Nancy Haynes
This summer I quit my job teaching at Faxon Montessori school in the Kansas City, MO, school district.
By John Hutcheson
For the past quarter century, teaching Montessori in the Dallas public schools has felt like swimming upstream.
By Cam Gordon
In 1985 the Kansas City, MO, public schools were court-ordered to integrate their schools. Three years later, officials called on Frank Vincent to lead the Montessori magnet option as part of the effort.
By Ginger K. McKenzie
Over the past three years, Ohio developed the Ohio Content Standards to ensure that students acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to pass the state required tests at specific grade levels. The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law requires all states to develop and administer annual proficiency tests in reading and math for all students in grades 3-8.
Parents Organize to Protect Positions of Trained Teachers
A meditation on public school commitment to Montessori education
By Mark Anderson
Homewood Montessori School in inner-city Pittsburgh and Children's Montessori House in northern Michigan's resort country may seem to have little in common.
News from the Associations
The American Montessori Society announced in late August an ambitious marketing and public relations campaign, including parent-information materials for member and non-member schools, a new magazine and a plan for ads and supplements to be inserted in daily newspapers across the United States and Canada.
A plan for a "strategic alliance" between the American Montessori Society and the National Center for Montessori Education has been completed, but leaders of the two organizations say no official announcement is expected before late September.
At its April 28 - May 1, 2005 meeting, the MACTE Commission took the following accreditation actions:
The Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education (MACTE Commission) is offering a full-day training session Nov. 11 in Orlando, FL, to prepare teachers and administrators to serve as on-site evaluators on teacher education program accreditation teams.
MACTE has distributed its first two brochures for public audiences.
Every five years, the MACTE Commission conducts a field study to evaluate the effectiveness of its nine "Essential Standards." The standards and their accompanying criteria specify the requirements that Montessori teacher education institutions and programs must meet in order to be granted accredited status.
Tim Seldin, operator of the International Montessori Council and the Montessori Foundation, has backed off from an announcement he made last spring that he was developing an ambitious research and public information initiative.
Open Forum, the quarterly publication of Montessori Educational Programs International (MEPI), will be reformatted as an electronic newsletter in the coming months and the Montessori Foundation's Tomorrow's Child magazine will be distributed as a member benefit.
A Teacher Educator's Appreciation of Montessori's Contribution
By Bretta Weiss Wolff
When Joy Turner died on July 11, 2005, the worldwide Montessori community lost one of its purest advocates, most effective documenters and most prolific writers.
By Robin Cain
Freedom is an essential ingredient in our Montessori classrooms, and it is an essential ingredient of democracy. Our country grapples with the boundaries of freedom as youth make choices that are within their prerogatives, but are not responsible choices. Our pluralistic culture demands a broadened sense of what is right, but without clear boundaries, our children and youth are in danger. Moral decay is evident, and character education programs are a proactive response. Character education is an integral part of Montessori education as the child's moral development is fostered in a prepared environment and through the cosmic education.
Books
Montessori Insights for Parents of Young Children by Aline D. Wolf
30 Questions, 30 Answers: a Montessori Education Reference Guide, by Connie S. Redwine, National Writers Press, 2005, 44 pages $5.95.
This book offers both an intellectual and visceral experience of Montessori education, taking the reader into Germany's Montessori movement before World War II. Presented in German and English, it offers a new perspective on the United States' post-World-War-II Montessori movement.
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