IAME, MACTE agree on separation plan

By Dennis Schapiro

After years of fruitless negotiations and weeks of pointed and threatening e-mails, the leaders of the two divisions within the Montessori Teacher Education Association (MTEA) agreed last week on the outline of a separation.

The plan was announced on Nov. 12 in a joint statement released by Carolyn Fermoyle, president of the International Association for Montessori Education, and Pamela Trumble, chair of the Montessori Accreditation Council on Teacher Education (MACTE), the organization’s accreditation arm.

The agreement calls for MACTE to operate under a revised version of the MTEA bylaws, retaining that organization’s nonprofit, tax-exempt status. The current MACTE commissioners would serve as board of directors.

IAME would re-incorporate under a new set of bylaws, presumably to focus on professional development of Montessori teacher educators.

The process outlined in the letter would require the new IAME bylaws to be circulated by Dec.  20, with a membership vote scheduled to coincide with the American Montessori Society conference in Boston March 25-28.

The agreement averted what could have been a nasty floor fight at the IAME annual meeting on Nov. 14. At that meeting Floyd Creech of the Florence School District #1 Montessori Teacher Program of South Carolina, was elected president of IAME, defeating Pamela Chrisman of the Santa Monica (CA) Montessori Institute. Crisman had raised questions about the split as vice president of IAME, and some viewers saw the vote as a decision to move forward smoothly with the split.

The American Montessori Society, the organization of the vast majority of MACTE-accredited programs, played a behind-the-scenes role, urging Trumble and Fermoyle to forge an agreement.

In a statement, AMS president Richard Ungerer said: “I applaud the MTEA, IAME, and MACTE leadership for coming to Tampa and presenting a jointly developed and agreed to restructuring plan. I will personally work to support and strengthen separate and independent organizations (IAME and MACTE) committed to best governance practices, transparency and accountability in service of teacher education programs throughout the world.”