Field Notes

Lander Study Examines Self Regulation

Lander Program Honors Virginia Self

M-Initiative Begins Co-op Purchasing

Initiative Offering Marketing Brochures

Montessori Survives Cincinnati Downsizing

Seldin to Offer Online Teacher Ed Program

Cambridge Public Program to Open

Lander Study Examines Self Regulation

By Barbara Ervin

In 2004 Lander University’s Montessori Teacher Education Program received a congressionally directed federal grant (P116Z040218) to continue the development of its teacher education program, support the work of its campus Montessori preschool facility and to conduct research. Before the funds were in place, we planned the research component of the project.

As we began to study the literature and define the focus of our study, we were drawn to the question of self-regulation. From our readings on self-regulation, we learned that children who have highly developed work habits and social skills have greater success in school. We also learned, primarily from the works of Albert Bandura, that a teacher’s self-efficacy, or belief in how effective or influential her practices can be, plays an important role in how well children perform in school.

Our project, then, is considering two questions.

First, is there a difference in the extent to which children in Montessori and non-Montessori classrooms learn self-regulation as measured through the work habits they display and the level of the social relationships they demonstrate?

Second, is there a correlation between levels of self-regulation in children, academic achievement and teacher self-efficacy?

We are following a cohort of children who were enrolled in kindergarten the first year and, in the final year, are second graders. All children are participating in the study with the permission of their parents, who completed a questionnaire. Each year we meet with the teachers and ask them to complete rating scales for the children. Children are also interviewed by Lander undergraduate education students.

Dr. Marilyn Mecca is the principal investigator. She was formerly the coordinator of Early Childhood Education at Lander. She retired in 2005 and now resides in Gastonia, NC. We collaboratively developed the measures.

Each fall we have sent interim reports to administrators in the participating schools or school districts when data from the previous spring has been aggregated.

Our three year study began collecting data in the spring of 2005 and will conclude in spring 2007. At the end of the study, 270 children from kindergarten through second grade will have participated, as well as 35 teachers. About half of the children are enrolled in Montessori classrooms, with the other half in non-Montessori.

One private Montessori school is participating; the rest of the participants attend public Montessori or non-Montessori programs. All are located in rural areas or small cities in South Carolina. There is little variance in the socio-economic backgrounds of the children.

The research project that we designed and are implementing was motivated by a wish to have South Carolina-specific data for school administrators who are weighing the decision to adopt Montessori programs in their districts. We are grateful to those school administrators and teachers who have allowed us access to their classrooms and commend them for their willingness to contribute to our understanding of Montessori education. We found no studies of rural, southern Montessori school populations in our review of the literature and are pleased to conduct a study that may add to our knowledge of Montessori in non-urban settings.

In most research, new questions and areas of inquiry arise from the findings it generates. Several questions have already come to mind for us. Once we have collected and analyzed all of our data, we hope to have the opportunity to refine and pursue these questions.

Barbara Ervin is Director of Montessori Education at Lander University in Greenwood, SC. She is the sponsor of this research.

Lander Program Honors Virginia Self

The Montessori teacher education program at Lander University in Greenwood, SC, has been renamed to honor a major benefactor of Montessori education at Lander and in South Carolina.

The Virginia Self Center for Montessori Education was dedicated Sept. 19, honoring the woman who chairs the Self Family Foundation.

Self has provided financial support for several public Montessori programs in South Carolina since viewing a program in Laurens. “I was so impressed with the teachers and the children. Not only were they learning academics, “ she said, “but responsibility, self-discipline and how to get along with others.”

The Lander program opened in 1989 with support from a grant from the Self Foundation. Another grant subsidized the tuition of Montessori teachers in training.

Lander program director Barbara Ervin credited Self for the success of Montessori programs in the state. “I have met people from other parts of the country who were impressed by what South Carolina has done with Montessori. The single greatest factor in the successful development of our Montessori program has been the Self Family Foundation and the resources it has put into it.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Self expressed her support. “Montessori is so important. It needs to have every chance to flourish.”

M-Initiative Begins Co-op Purchasing

A cooperative purchasing program led by the Montessori Initiative that includes Staples and Nienhuis could save Montessori schools substantial sums.

The Montessori Initiative launched the School Co-operative Purchasing Program, that, according to Executive Director Michael Jacobson, will permit participating members in the United States, Canada and Mexico to reduce their operating costs significantly.

According to a release, “Participating member schools will save up to 62 percent on all administrative, office equipment (computers, ink, etc.) and cleaning and maintenance supplies through a unique program designed in association with Staples. Under the agreement, participating schools will save significantly over the traditional educator discount.”

Nienhuis, according to the release, will offer participating schools a discount of five percent in addition to any other discounts they may currently receive.

The Initiative also announced a program that will reduce the credit card processing fees for members by up to 25 percent.

The Montessori Initiative, according to the release, “will also be announcing additional savings on a wide range of services, including insurance, in the near future.”

INFO: Contact Heidi Walters at hwalt...@mthemagazine.com

Initiative Offering Marketing Brochures

The Montessori Initiative and M: The Magazine for Montessori Families have announced “an important marketing brochure available in bulk that will help meet the needs of all Montessori Schools.”

Titled With Graduates Like These….We Must Be Doing Something Right, the cover features Montessori grads who have accomplished, and are accomplishing, their life goals and acknowledge the value of their Montessori education.

The brochure features prominent and lesser-known, but highly accomplished, individuals.

The brochure can be ordered in bulk from M: The Magazine. Supplies are limited and, according to publisher Michael Jacobson, half the press run has been set aside for schools supporting the Montessori Initiative and schools subscribing to M: The Magazine for Montessori Families.

INFO: hwalt...@mthemagazine

 Montessori Survives Cincinnati Downsizing

Lobbying by parents helped save spots in Cincinnati public Montessori programs as the district school board, faced with substantial projected declines in student enrollment, voted in late November to close 13 schools and eliminate seats for 6,250 students.

The board revised a proposal from Supt. Rosa Blackwell to cut spots at several schools including North Avondale and Dater Montessori. The proposal came in response to a report by demographers projecting that enrollment could drop to about 29,000 by 2011. Current enrollment is 35,200.

Seldin to Offer Online Teacher Ed Program

Tim Seldin’s International Montessori Council is developing an online teacher education program that could be in operation as early as this summer.

At least a half-dozen Montessori teacher education programs make substantial use of the internet or provide distance education and Seldin has offered an online seminar for school leaders, but this could be the first Montessori teacher preparation program built upon on internet-based instruction.

According to Seldin, “the model would blend conventional face-to-face academic study and year-long student-teaching experience with an additional highly structured year-long distance learning program designed to complement and enhance the overall teacher education experience.”

Although Seldin had not by late November discussed the training with leaders of the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, which is struggling to establish guidelines for distance learning, Seldin said his course would be “consistent with current MACTE guidelines.”

Seldin selected Kitty Bravo, who is affiliated with New Gate School in Sarasota, FL, as head of a committee that is “currently working to develop policy aligned with MACTE accreditation guidelines for recognizing IMC affiliated programs.” A report could come as early as January and first program operations by summer, according to some reports.

Seldin, in a statement, wrote that he moved ahead on the project because “Montessori schools around the world are challenged by a shortage of well-prepared Montessori teachers.”

He said the IMC program “would be both highly effective and supportive of adult learners; rigorous and thorough, less stressful and more consistent with what we know about adult learners and accessible to more people around the world. Our vision is to create collaborative learning communities that prepare very well qualified Montessori teachers in a lifestyle-friendly way.”

INFO: The International Montessori Council, (941) 729-9565 or email Tim Seldin, IMC Chair at timsel...@montessori.org.

Cambridge Public Program to Open

The Cambridge, MA, public schools, responding to parent interest, have committed to opening a Montessori program next fall.

The program, according to Justin Martin, director of the district’s Office of Public Information, will begin with three 24-student pre-k classrooms and add a grade each year until the Tobin School site is entirely a Montessori school.

The district’s school committee approved the recommendation for a Montessori program from Supt. Thomas Fowler-Finn in May. At a fall parent information night, the booth on the Montessori program was “mobbed from beginning to end” by Cambridge parents, according to Martin. “We had enough interest to start seven or eight classrooms.”

Fowler-Finn had been superintendent of the Ft. Wayne Community Schools, which includes a successful Montessori program. He brought in Connie Murphy, who had served as principal of Bunche Montessori in Ft. Wayne, to help in the planning.

Montessori had emerged as a popular option in a market study of Cambridge parents. In addition to the parent interest, Martin said, reports of successful Montessori programs in Springfield, MA, and elsewhere in the U.S supported the new program. “Public Montessori schools, while few, have been seen as largely successful,” he said.

The district is still considering options for preparing the teachers for the program.