What Would Maria Assess?

Denver’s Denison School Designs Own Report

By Mark Anderson

In an academic climate fixated on assessments and standards Denver public school officials have done something a little different.

Like many other districts, Denver adopted a new standards-based report card for its district in 2006, aiming to track and direct each student’s progress toward annual, state-mandated learning goals.

But the Denver administrators allowed local Montessori teachers to adapt that new tool, turning it into a hybrid report that recognizes Montessori outcomes in meeting district standards and also records a student’s development in Montessori rubrics, from practical life to peacemaking.

The Denver story is still unfolding, but at this point local Montessorians say that they’ve overcome a challenge that threatened to replace parts of the Montessori method with traditional classroom exercises.

Denver’s decision to create a new report card was in part an effort to consolidate the multiple reporting tools that district schools had used for years.

But the move also reflected the district’s commitment to assessment-based reform, moving students toward universal standards by frequently measuring their progress and adapting learning plans to keep them on track.

“The mantra for all state educators now is ‘assessment drives instruction,’” said Joe Ploplys, a primary grades teacher at Denison Montessori in Denver.

That regimen of regular assessments against standards—which numbered more than 50 in the new report card’s initial draft in 2005—would exact a high price in Montessori classrooms though, according to many of Denver’s Montessori staff.

The changes could show up in new curriculum mandates, in the imposition of district-selected educational drills, or in requirements to “teach to the standards” one day each week as some states have done, said Beth Hamilton, Denison Montessori’s principal.

“It would be like going from Oz to Kansas,” Hamilton said, replacing Montessori’s depth of experience and learning with drills that help students master facts or calculations.

“We’d lose many of the things that pique a child’s interest and that makes learning exciting,” Hamilton said.

So Hamilton, Ploplys and a small volunteer team of teachers took the initiative and asked the district for a chance to adapt the new report card, translating Montessori lessons to match the list of standards.

The group gained a tactical edge in their lobbying effort when the first draft of the district’s report card appeared back in 2005-2006. It disappointed almost everyone who saw it, by trying to convey too much information and ending up in confusion.

“It was horrible,” Ploplys remembers.

Many members of a district parents-teachers advisory group agreed, and they urged the district to go along with the Montessorian’s effort to draw up an alternative reporting tool.

District administrators agreed, Hamilton said. “They said ‘we know that education isn’t cookie cutter work.’” They recognized Montessori is a different pedagogy requiring different assessments, and that curriculum has long added value for families and the district, she said.

With that endorsement the alternative effort got underway last fall, and for the next five months a group of between five and 10 teachers from Denver’s three Montessori programs pored over the benchmarks from the district’s new standards-based performance reports.

They carefully aligned the standards and district assessments with Montessori lessons, reviewed those with administrators and won their OK.

The result is a report that records each student’s performance against the state standards — rated as excellent, proficient, partially proficient or unsatisfactory.

Beneath each mark, teachers record the student’s work on the Montessori materials that conform to the standards, all collected in student portfolios. And the card includes additional reports on Montessori developments—a student’s growth in self-directed learning or classroom leadership and contributions.

The most important element of the assessments continues to be the two 30-minute parent teacher conferences Denison schedules each year, Ploplys said. Almost all parents attend.

It adds up to a satisfactory outcome for Montessorians, but Ploplys said that questions remain as Denver continues on its standards-and-assessments path. Will administrators continue to accept Montessori lessons as equivalents as additional benchmarks are added to the standards? Will Montessori teachers have the energy and patience to undertake another round of alignment when standards in more subjects are added to the current reading, writing and math standards?

And as the list of standards grow, will there still be time to conduct an authentic Montessori program?

In Denver, there is reason to hope that Montessori can continue intact, Hamilton said.

First, administrators recognize that neither budgets nor parents are likely to allow many more assessments.

“I think everyone sees that we’re already at the tip-top of parent tolerance for assessing students,” Hamilton said.

The district has also signaled its endorsement of Montessori, announcing plans to open a new program next year, acknowledging the curriculum’s academic strength and its popularity with families.

And the reform-minded administration — led by superintendent William Bennet and chief academic officer Jaime Aquino — has been respectful of school staff as they push for broad improvements in academic performance, Hamilton said.

“I’m told from the top down that you must do this or that. But they’ve brought a humanity to the process that’s important.”

An example: Aquino tapped into the curriculum budget to provide a stipend to each teacher who worked on aligning Montessori with the district standards last winter.

“That’s the kind of atmosphere they’re trying to create,” Hamilton said. “They recognize that this is people work. It’s heart-centered work.”