Cultural Subject May Be the KeyLisa Adarve on Coping with the Testing ManiaFew have seen the impact of the standards and testing movement on public Montessori schools as Lisa Adarve has. With her partner in Montessori Made Manageable, Barbara Scott, she has worked with schools and school districts across the country to assure that Montessori schools cover skills and information covered by state examinations. She remains optimistic, but sees many frustrated Montessori teachers and struggling programs. "When language and math are what is tested, it forces an anti-Montessori focus that concentrates only on language and math." She hears teachers say that 25 percent of the year is spent on testing or test preparation. "Teachers are asked to teach skills without the foundations. There is too much fragmenting and teaching of bits and pieces. Who wants to learn a skill when it is not connected to the world?" She describes working with Montessori schools that use Reading First strategies that require 90 minutes daily focused on reading. She sees basal readers in use, and teachers who follow skill-pacing guides. "Some good teachers are leaving," she said. "A lot of teachers are frustrated, but they don't see a way out of doing what they are told-teaching a fragmented curriculum." The situation can get even more complicated, she said, when there is not a common agreement on how to deliver Montessori education. "In one school," she said, "teachers come from five different trainings." Some teachers just give up the struggle and adapt with more direct instruction linked to standards and procedures established by district authorities. Adarve argues teachers can preserve Montessori integrity and meet state standards. "You have to start with the cultural subjects," she said. "A lot of students have never had the five great lessons. The curriculum can be an off-shoot of that. We can teach reading in relation to interesting concepts." She said her firm's requested services now lean more toward creating a set of lesson plans that cover the six-year elementary span. She said she sees a standardizing of Montessori practice within schools-not so much in prescribed teaching style as in an agreed-upon curriculum. She sees the key-and the core of her work-as helping teachers to come to agreement on how to structure the curriculum over a year, and backing that structure up with reference to state standards. It's a lot of work and takes a lot of time, but the result is a curriculum that can support both state standards and Montessori integrity. "You can prepare students for the tests without losing the essence of Montessori education," she said. |
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