'Superior Outcomes" for Public Montessori

Lillard Study in Science Magazine Draws International Attention

On several dimensions, children at a public inner city Montessori school had superior outcomes relative to a sample of Montessori applicants who, because of a random lottery, attended other schools.

30 words that could change Montessori education in the United States and beyond?

They were written by Angeline Lillard in an article, “Evaluating Montessori Education,” that appeared in the Education Forum section of Science magazine’s Sept. 29 edition.

Research done by Lillard, author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius and Nicole Else-Quest, a former graduate student in psychology at the University of Wisconsin, looked at academic and social outcomes of 59 Montessori students and 53 students who were on lottery lists, but not admitted to an unidentified public Montessori school— actually Craig Montessori School— in Milwaukee.

Their conclusion:

By the end of kindergarten, the Montessori children performed better on standardized tests of reading and math, engaged in more positive interaction on the playground and showed more advanced social cognition and executive control. They also showed more concern for fairness and justice. At the end of elementary school, Montessori children wrote more creative essays with more complex sentence structures, selected more positive responses to social dilemmas and reported feeling more of a sense of community at their school.

The report brought more attention to Montessori education than any event in recent decades. It drew notice in print and online publications such as Scientific American, WebMD, Fox News, CBS, UPI and from sites as far away as England and India.

Interestingly, there appeared to be greater interest in England than the United States, where dailies in Milwaukee, Atlanta and Charlotte reported on it, but few others. Several major British papers gave it major play.

“I think it may be because education is less politicized there,” Lillard said.

Not that the research was not political grist in Europe. For example the Times of London ran commentary, criticizing narrow, test-oriented education policies, that included the comment

Last week a study in Science journal demonstrated that primary school children educated using the progressive Montessori method do better, socially as well as academically, than ones subjected to the ubiquitous battery farming.

Lillard, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and foremost a scientist, has some reservations about the inevitable political use of her study.

She expressed some disappointment at the lack of scientific response. “This reaches people’s emotions,” she said. “I would like people to be focusing on what is true. My biggest hope is that people will really pay attention to what is supported by research and how they can implement that in schools.”

That comment refers to her book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius, and its identification of several practices that are part of the Montessori approach that have been proven effective by reputable research.

But the article does have unmistakable political potential to help many Montessori educators support what they strongly believe to be true.

She reports receiving “lots of appreciative e-mails.” No Montessori conference seems to be complete without a keynote from her. She’s had offers to consult and suggestions for future research.

She described the study as the most difficult she has done, in part because of challenges in design, and also because of difficulties in managing a project halfway across the country.

The study involved several challenges to Lillard, not the least of which was the resignation of co-author Else-Quest halfway through. Lillard and some of her graduate students made trips to Milwaukee to collect data.

She’s had a few second thoughts about the research. One is finding ways to more effectively assess the development of the older children. “I wish I could have been more creative in what I presented to 12-year-olds to assess their development. There is something special about Montessori 12-year-olds that is difficult to measure, but you can see they are different. Part of it is their sense of themselves.

“I hope the research will have an impact for children.,” she continued. “Montessori really had it right about what works well for children. I feel sorry that so many children have to suffer the insult that is part of traditional public schools.”

INFO: For a copy of the study in Science, which is not available online, call (202) 326-6440, or email: sci...@aaas.org.

Reporting on the Lillard Article: A Sampling

Scientific American

Students Prosper with Montessori Method

Nearly 100 years ago, a physician opened a school in a poor section of Rome. In doing so, Maria Montessori went beyond being the first female doctor in Italy and became the pioneer of a new method of education. A curriculum based on close observations of children, the Montessori method includes an individualized curriculum and no grades, among other innovations. And a new study among children from Milwaukee seems to show that it delivers significant benefits over traditional public schools for the youngest students.

Drkoop.com

Inner City Montessori School Creates Model CitizensChildren perform well academically and are socially responsible, study contends

A Montessori education creates solid citizens who perform at least as well academically—and sometimes better—as their public school counterparts.

UPI

Advantages with Montessori approach

A U.S. study comparing children at a public inner city Montessori school with children at traditional schools found Montessori children had better outcomes.

Web MD

Montessori Kids: Academic Advantage?Study Shows Improved Test Scores for Students in Montessori Schools

New research suggests that children who attend Montessori schools may have an edge over other children in terms of both academic and social development.
But an early education researcher who spoke to WebMD says the study was far too small to be conclusive.

The Guardian

Research shows benefits of Montessori education

A method of schooling that focuses on personal development rather than exams produces more mature, creative and socially adept children, scientists have found.
Psychologists in the US found that across a range of abilities, children at Montessori schools out-performed those given a traditional education.

Medindia

Montessori Schools Kids do better in Reading and Math

A recent study reveals that kids attending Montessori schools have an advantage over other kids when it comes to academic and social development. However, an early education researcher finds the study to be too small to be conclusive.

Teacher Magazine

Best of Class Are Montessori schools better than their conventional counterparts?

The longitudinal study is one of the most comprehensive yet on the relative merits of a Montessori education, according to Giselle Lundy-Ponce, a policy analyst for the American Federation of Teachers. But Lillard says more research is needed to discover why, for example, the older Montessori students failed to outscore their public-school counterparts, as the Montessori 5-year-olds did.
Indeed, it’s too early to single out Montessori as the paragon of early childhood education, Lundy-Ponce contends. For starters, she says, the study’s sample size is too small to draw definitive conclusions about the format. Moreover, she notes, the study didn’t factor in how much reading exposure the students had at home. Finally, although Craig was chosen for the study in part because it has a well-implemented program, not all Montessori schools adhere to the model system.
“Learning how to think for themselves, being better human beings,” says Lundy-Ponce, “is not everything children need to get ahead academically.”…
Still, the study bolsters Montessori’s credibility, according to Phillip Dosmann, principal of Craig Montessori. He says Craig has lost students to other schools because parents wanted traditional grades, report cards, and homework as their children got older. “We get results using the Montessori curriculum,” says Dosmann. “That’s why this study is powerful.”