Field Notes

Task Force Issues Guidelines for Early Childhood Policy

Distance Learning Negotiations Revived

Montessori Schools In Planning Stages

Materials Companies Seeking New Ownership

NY School Fire Ignites International Support

On-Line Conference: A Report from the Future?

Chinese Company Mindspace Closed

Rodgers Dies After ‘University’ Closed

MACTE Moves Forward on Distance Learning

Task Force Issues Guidelines for Early Childhood Policy

A national task force, without Montessori representation, has issued guidelines that are expected to guide states in improving early childhood programs.

The report of the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force was released late in October and calls for developing a comprehensive assessment system to improve the performance of early education programs.

The Council of Chief State School Officers, with funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts, is expected to use the Task Force’s recommendations in developing state policies.

“Currently there is no comprehensive system in place guiding early educators and policy makers as they expand preschool programs in their state,” said Sue Urahn, managing director of Pew’s Center on the States. “Without a consistent means of measuring results and evaluating practices, states have no way of identifying successful practices in programs that work, or of helping to improve programs that don’t.”

The Task Force is comprised of 15 testing experts, state officials and program leaders was created by the Foundation for Child Development, the Joyce Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. It recommends that states:

• Develop a unified system of early childhood education that includes a single, coherent system of standards, assessments, data and professional development efforts across all programs and funding streams.

• Align high-quality and comprehensive standards, curriculum, instruction and assessments as a continuum from prekindergarten through grade three.

• Assure that all child and program assessments use valid and reliable instruments that are well suited for their intended purposes.

• Support the full inclusion of all children in accountability and improvement efforts, including children who speak English as a second language and disabled children.

• Provide adequate resources to enable programs to meet performance standards and to support accurate, credible and useful assessments and effective program improvement efforts.

Task Force members and project staff:

Sharon Lynn Kagan (Ph.D.), Task Force Chair, Professor and Associate Dean for Policy, Teachers College, Columbia University and Professor Adjunct, Yale University.

Eugene Garcia, Task Force Vice-Chair, Vice President for Education Partnerships, Arizona State University.

W. Steven Barnett (Ph.D.), Director, National Institute for Early Education Research and Professor, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Barbara Bowman, Director, Office of Early Childhood Education, Chicago Public Schools and Professor, Erikson Institute.

Mary Beth Bruder (Ph.D.), Professor of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut.

Lindy Buch (Ph.D.), Director, Office of Early Childhood Education and Family Services, Michigan Department of Education.

Maryann Santos de Barona, Professor, College of Education, Arizona State University.

Harriet Dichter, Deputy Secretary, Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Public Welfare.

Mark Friedman, Executive Director, The Fiscal Policy Studies Institute.

Jacqueline Jones, Assistant Commissioner, Division of Early Childhood Education, New Jersey State Department of Education.

Joan Lombardi Director, The Children’s Project.

Samuel Meisels (Ph.D.), President, Erikson Institute.

Marsha Moore, Commissioner, Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.

Robert Pianta Professor, University of Virginia.

Donald Rock, Senior Research Scientist, Educational Testing Service.

Thomas Schultz (Ph.D.), Project Director, The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Debi Khasnabis, Research Assistant, University of Michigan.

INFO:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Reports/Pre-k_education/task_force_report1.pdf

Distance Learning Negotiations Revived

Negotiations to build a joint online Elementary I Montessori teacher education master’s degree program to be housed at the University of Nebraska-Kearney are back on track.

After apparently deciding to abandon the project for financial reasons, UN-K Prof. Joan Lewis said a proposal from Mid-America Montessori Teacher Training based in Omaha has both sides optimistic. “They made really good suggestions,” Lewis said.

She said UN-K has sent a counter offer.

“We are close. We are negotiating for how to make the Elementary I program online in a way that will work for both Mid-America and UN-K. I’d like to see it happen. I hold out hope we will succeed.”

A primary issue is getting all the courses of the Montessori teacher education program online. Another will be tuition, involving fees for both Montessori teacher education and for the state university.

Lewis said no timeline for approval is in place.

Montessori Schools In Planning Stages

Kingston, NY— Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger in October proposed the district begin a Grade 1-3 Montessori program at Robert Graves Elementary School in Port Ewen.

He asked board support for a pilot program for the 2008-09 school year with eventual plans to expand to a P-6 program.

Guilford County, SC—The Guilford County school system has received a federal grant to expand its magnet program to include a Montessori program at Washington Elementary School.

Red Wing, MN—With support from a local foundation, a small city school district has taken first steps to open a Montessori preschool program.

According to a report in the Red Wing Republican Eagle, Supt. Stan Slessor told the school board that an offer from the Jones Family Foundation would cover “a lion’s share” of the program’s $90,000 start-up cost.

The board received the information Dec. 3 and made no immediate decision.

According to the report, board member Perry Sekus attended a North American Montessori Teachers’ Association conference in Bloomington, MN, which, he said “really blew me away. …doing something like this will, I think, dramatically enhance the education of our students and the success of the district.”

Materials Companies Seeking New Ownership

The owners of two venerable companies are looking for Montessori educators to carry on their work.

In-Print for Children, (established 1981) will cease retail sales by the end of 2008, according to owner/designer Carolyn Jones.

She added, “I’m not retiring—just making more time available for research and design. As a graphic designer and materials producer, I would like to make myself available to others, especially to those wishing to develop quality science materials for the 6-9 level. As for the existing In-Print products, look for them from other Montessori venders. I started out as just an interested parent, designing materials for my daughter’s Montessori classroom. Making materials is a rewarding profession that I could never give up. I hope I can inspire others to take a chance at ‘research and design’.”

Priority Montessori Materials (established 1987) owners Ed and Ruth Pryor said they hope their Science and Cultural subject materials will continue to be available to their sizeable clientele.

Ruth Pryor, a teacher for eight years before starting the company, said she began because of “the challenge of making your own materials, while trying to stay up with tomorrow’s lesson plans, your own kids and spouse and the house.”

According to the Pryors, “the sale will include sufficient product (finished goods inventory) to meet orders for a period of time to allow movement and transition of the business from Paonia, CO. It will also include the raw goods inventory needed to begin the manufacture of items as soon as your employees are available at the new site. Equipment needed to manufacture items is included.”

INFO:
In-Print for Children: 12 E. Glenside Av., Glenside, PA 19038-4520, (215 ) 885-2722 or 800-481-1981, inprin...@earthlink.net.

Priority Montessori Materials: 39266 Pitkin Rd., Paonia, CO 81428, (970) 527-7588 or 888-267-9289, pmmateri...@aol.com or sa...@prioritymontessori.com.

NY School Fire Ignites International Support

An accidental Oct. 3 fire at a Montessori school in Lagrangeville, NY, had all the earmarks of a tragedy.

The fire destroyed elementary classrooms and administrative offices of Brendon Montessori School, but it also ignited the local and international Montessori community, according to Carrie Sheeran, the school’s director.

Sheeran quickly got word out through the e-mail network of Tim Seldin, head of the Montessori Foundation, and via an appeal from Rich Ungerer, executive director of the American Montessori Society, at that organization’s October conference.

“The response was worldwide,” Sheeran said. “From Japan, South America, Europe, Canada and all over the U.S.”

She said the school received numerous donations of materials, gift certificates and classroom supplies. Some Montessori schools sent albums. Students from across the country e-mailed students at Brendon. “Children in elementary programs did bake sales for us,” she said.

Meanwhile, Sheeren went into overdrive with her staff and parents. “Time,” she recalled, “became elastic.”

She checked out five properties including Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School, a parochial school 10 miles away in Poughkeepsie that had closed the previous spring. Within four days she had negotiated a lease.

Parents, she said, showed up with horse trailers and box trucks to move materials from infant-toddler and primary classrooms that escaped damage.

Parishioners from Mt. Carmel joined in a weekend effort to clean the school and prepare it for use. With the Oct. 8 Columbus Day holiday to do extra work, the new school opened on Oct. 9.

The children responded well, Sheeran said, noting that is was hardest on students who had been in the school the longest. Students put on a program by the end of the month and the school community came together on Thanksgiving.

“We’re in the process of getting together thank you letters,” Sheeran said. “It’s a wonderful thing that our students feel that connection and responsibility.

“Our school continues to be a community. It’s not the building where we are, but who we are and how we come together.”

On-Line Conference: A Report from the Future?

A three-week online conference sponsored by The Institute on Educational Studies may provide a model for future conferences.

Evolving the Radical Nature of Montessori Education was organized by Phil Gang and Marsha Snow, and conducted between Oct. 22 and Nov. 11. It drew participants from Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Togo, the United States and Uzbekistan.

Participants viewed and shared reactions to podcasts from Fritjof Capra, Sanford Jones, Angeline Lillard, Mary Raudonis Loew, Jean Miller and Brian Swimme. They also engaged in on-line conversation based on brief presentations with Eva-Maria Ahlquist, Steven Arnold, Nicky Chisnall, John Fowler, Jan Gaffney, Barbara Gordon, Fiona Graham, Cindee Karns, P. Krishna, Mary Ellen Maunz, Mary Caroline Parker and Alice Renton, as well as Gang and Snow.

Generally, discussions on several topics proceeded simultaneously for a few days, then the discussions closed and another ones opened.

“It was quite a diverse group with many 30 and 40-plus-year veterans sharing in the dialogue,” Gang wrote. “This medium is very powerful and the participants, from their comments, attest to the fact that we can build a non-hierarchical inquiry that goes deeper and wider than the ‘official’ Montessori organizations.”

Participant Kathleen Miszuk reflected on the conference. Below are some excerpts:

“This simultaneous exchange of ideas over a three-week period while continuing to interact with children, parents, administrators and colleagues on a daily basis… seemed to promote an immediate and creative change in my relations and work environment.”

“In a traditional conference, talks usually are one-way affairs with a speaker talking and the rest listening, perhaps occasionally commenting. Workshops tend to be more popular as there are more hands-on activities and some creative dialogue happening. But there is always a time limit to each talk and the entire conference usually lasts from two to five days, with little room for true dialogue and reflection to take place.”

“Very often as the dialogues progressed, we would find that ideas expressed on one thread would have a direct relation to another thread or even that the topic would kind of jump over to the other thread and continue there. This process of having at least four different threads of dialogue going at one time allows each person a choice in following his or her particular interest, as well as the option of participating in one or more dialogue(s) at the same time (similar to children in an elementary classroom that may be working on two or three projects at the same time).”

“At a traditional on-site conference, one usually participates in one topic at a time, although there are those that skip from one talk to the next—attempting to make the most of the wealth of ideas usually presented. At the e-conference, this is not a problem as long as you have time to read and reflect in the comfort of your home or workplace. One can follow 4-6 topics at the same time.”

“I usually read the postings in the threads of dialogue in the evening or before going to bed, at a time when I was able to more clearly reflect on the ideas presented. After reading and reflecting and then ‘sleeping on’ these ideas, I would then wake up with a renewed energy and a host of thoughts and practical ideas running through my head. I woke up every day throughout the conference overflowing with what I can only call ‘creative energy’. Then I would go to work and interact with children, parents, administrators and other colleagues, all the while having these ideas of the night before subtly influence the way I viewed and interacted with the children, parents, administrators and colleagues, as well as the way I prepared the environment.”

“At a typical on-site conference, I feel that the creative energy and ideas tend to dissolve shortly after the conference ends unless one continues the reflective thinking process after the conference. So somehow the length of the e-conference has a qualitative affect on the process of reflecting and then acting on those reflections.”

“At the end of the day I would go home, the thoughts and ideas from the discussions the night before would combine with the work that I did that day, and this would result in more ideas and thoughts that I would then share with others on-line. I would then listen and reflect again, sleep on it, go to work again...and this process would continue for about 3 weeks, having a kind of “snowball effect in slow motion”—a cycle of ideas, reflection, action, reflection, discussion and more ideas, reflection, and so on.”

“As a result of the ideas put forth at the e-conference, I feel encouraged to continue my critical reflections of Montessori education (as it is currently presented in Montessori schools today). I also found a renewed energy for my interest in cosmic stories and Eco-literacy and am creatively pursuing this interest.”

“After this experience, I have come to believe that this model for extended education is a very promising one with great potential for sharing ideas globally with other Montessori educators as well as with educators outside of Montessori education.”

Gang says another conference will be offered in 2008.

Chinese Company Mindspace Closed

The first China-based business to market higher-end Montessori materials in the United States has closed.

Mindspace Furniture LLC made something of a splash with advertising and a large exhibit at the American Montessori Society annual conference earlier this year. According to Jason Tao, who also operates Montessori Outlet, which continues in operation, the American market was not receptive to the more expensive materials.

Rodgers Dies After ‘University’ Closed

The book has apparently closed on one of the oddest chapters in the credentialing of Montessori teachers.

Raymond Rodgers, who ran an operation that awarded degrees in many disciplines from associate through doctorates from a small Vancouver, British Columbia, office died June 5, about a month after authorities closed his enterprise.

Rodgers operated under several names including Geo Vancouver University Colleges, Montessori International Teacher Education K-3, Montessori Teachers College, New Summits University, Vancouver University Colleges, Vancouver University Worldwide, VUC Society, Whetham College and Worldwide Vancouver University.

In a 2000 interview with The Vancouver Sun, Rodgers said Vancouver U “trains Montessori teachers and grants … external degrees to established Montessori teachers, based on the teaching they have done and the post-secondary credits they have accumulated elsewhere.”

He frequently described himself as an unacknowledged visionary. He also saw himself as a Montessori educator, attending early planning meetings of the organization that eventually became the Montessori Accrediting Council for Teacher Education.

For more than 20 years he claimed common law authority to operate his degree-granting “universities,” a claim B.C. authorities had challenged several times in court.

On May 4, B.C.’s Advanced Education Ministry was granted a Supreme Court injunction to stop Vancouver University from granting and conferring degrees. According to Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell, “This injunction also prevents Vancouver University from providing degrees for a fee, reward or other remuneration, which is contrary to the province’s Degree Authorization Act.”

After the order, Rodgers was quoted by the Sun as saying the ruling would have no effect on his granting of degrees. “‘We don’t conduct degree programs in British Columbia. The degrees are printed in other jurisdictions and signed outside of British Columbia and have been for some time.”

According to Coell, “The Ministry is currently taking steps to advise all organizations involved with Vancouver University about the terms of the injunction. The Ministry is actively proceeding to enforce the terms of the court injunction.”

Vancouver University did not appeal the decision. Its website indicates it still offers only theology degrees—degrees not subject to provincial authority. The office was reported closed due to a water damage accident. The listed phone is not answered.

MACTE Moves Forward on Distance Learning

The major accrediting body for on-site Montessori teacher education continues to move toward accreditation of distance learning programs.

Gretchen Warner, executive director of the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education, discussed with teacher educators at the organization’s annual meeting in Vancouver, BC, a plan to seek approval for an expansion of scope from the U.S. Dept. of Education to include distance learning.

The initiative comes as the International Montessori Council (IMC) is preparing to accredit its first distance learning course for Montessori primary teachers. That program is operated by The Center for Guided Montessori Studies (CGMS), a corporation that includes among its principals several leaders in IMC. The CGMS course is scheduled to begin its first course Jan.14.

MACTE’s current distance learning pilot program will be extended for five years and will include initial applicants in addition to programs that are already accredited through MACTE. This could allow for joint accreditation with the CGMS program.

As part of the process, MACTE has added Kecia Ray to its board. According to her Linkedin profile, Ray is quality manager in Policy and Strategic Planning for the Metro Nashville Public Schools and assistant professor at Lipscomb University. She has worked nationally on technology in education.

Other meeting notes:

• Carolyn Fermoyle, executive director of International Association for Montessori Education (IAME), said that the location of the MACTE /IAME meetings in Vancouver was symbolic of the organizations’ international focus. She estimated that 15 percent of conference goers came from outside of the United States. IAME is planning on meeting outside of the United States every four years.

• Sighle Fitzgerald gave the keynote speech on the IAME conference’s opening evening. A seasoned Montessorian who is a founding member of MACTE and has worked in the field of Montessori education for 40 years, Fitzgerald’s speech focused on the importance of unity in the Montessori community.

• Participants discussed the formation of an international consortium on the MACTE board. Kathy Price of Vancouver will head the group.

• Warner reports that MACTE is working with several regional associations, including the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and National Association for the Education of Young Children to achieve wider recognition of MACTE certification.

• Leaders of IAME and MACTE are considering options to restructure their corporate shell. A single corporation, The Montessori Teacher Education Association, is a legal entity that houses both organizations. Members will be consulted over the winter months. The earliest a restructuring would be voted on would be in a year.

• The next IAME meeting will take place in conjunction with AMS’ November California conference.