Policy Update: Federal State and Local

Information for the Montessori community. Montessori Forward is interested in your comments and questions about how your school might be impacted and how we can support your advocacy work

Federal:

The White House Summit on Early Education is scheduled for Dec. 10. President Obama will be announcing the recipients of the Preschool Development Grants and Early Head Start Child Care Partnership. We'll provide links to listen to the live streaming of this event closer to the date.

The Excellent Educators for All Initiative will be unveiled soon but  three components include: comprehensive educator equity plans to assure experienced teachers in all schools; an educator equity support network offering technical assistance to develop model plans, and promising practices for high need schools; and educator equity profiles- state profiles that will identify gaps in access to quality teaching.

State:

OR: Governor Kitzhaber's educational initiatives include:

• higher education scholarships
• services to ELL students in 9th grade to support their graduation rates
• Quality Early Child Care- $85 million in additional funds for expansion and accountability
• State funded all day kindergarten- $220 million

SC: A decision by the state Supreme Court will provide increased funding for poor and rural regions of the state for expansion of early childhood education programs. Several organizations are working together to bring a plan before the legislature soon. Money will be made available for child care programs, home visits, and increased supervision and accountability.

MT: As one of nine states with no public preschool program, the state Board of Education recently voted to approve funds to offer a state wide program. The Early Childhood Advisory Board has been formed and will be creating Early Learning Standards.

NY: New teacher certification exams have resulted in a 20% drop in candidates who have passed the test. State officials cite the needs for increased quality in teacher education programs. The Teacher Performance Assessment requires a portfolio which includes a video of the candidate teaching.

Teacher preparation programs must demonstrate that 80% of their graduates are able to pass to maintain their accreditation.

Local:

Chicago- Social impact bonds have been approved by the City Council Finance Committee allowing for private funding for public preschool programs.

Denver- has extended a sales tax increase to provide funding for the city's preschool program. Families can receive vouchers to enroll their child in one of 250 programs that meet accountability criteria.

San Antonio- has passed an increase in sales tax with the money being used to fund public pre-school.

Seattle- a new tax measure will fund a 4 year pilot public preschool program.

San Francisco- Preschool For All program, run through the public schools, has been renewed.

NYC- has doubled the number of children in full day kindergarten

The Impact of CCDBG on Montessori Education

The president has signed the Child Care Development Block Grant Act of 2014 into law. This bill, which had strong bipartisan support, is the first re authorization of this bill since 1996.

It assures statutory changes that will promote economic self-sufficiency for families by making child care more affordable and will improve the overall quality of early childhood education.

Serving an even larger population of children and families will be accomplished through a public- private partnership of providers in a mixed delivery system. (Yes, this means Montessori schools)

The bill includes revised health and safety standards, measures of environmental quality, requirements for teacher education and professional development, and has a consumer education/protection piece that will give parents the information they need to make child care choices that work best for their family.

How does all of this impact high quality Montessori education? As with state Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) and Professional Registries for tracking teacher requirements, the definitions of quality do not always accurately measure Montessori programs. This bill is about, in part, parent choice but only for those choices which match the definitions of quality as established by state agencies.

Our schools can provide an amazing, high quality early education program for all kinds of children and families. To offer this choice, however, we must educate those who make and implement the rules and regulations. This is what grassroots advocacy action is all about.

This bill is one more reason for us to act at the local level. Join your state Montessori group today. Start a group where one does not exist. (See Resources for both at Montessori Forward). With your colleagues, develop an action plan and move Montessori forward.

Montessori Forward is a volunteer grassroots group of Montessori educators whose goal is to support advocacy and action at the local level. www.montessoriforward.og

Ratios and Group Size? What Do We Think?

There has been an ongoing discussion about ratios and group sizes on the Montessori Forward List Serve. This topic has also been explored on other Montessori Blogs and recently on the Montessori Teachers Facebook group. Recent articles, policy implementation, licensing rules and regulations, and a survey of the wide variance in ratios across the US have all brought attention to this issue. It is, clearly, a concern to the Montessori community.

Certainly there are settings and models and maybe a given population of children in which a small group size would be beneficial. There is some research that demonstrates this to be the case. But many of these studies have looked specifically at Head Start programs, and there is no research that we are aware of that specifically looks at ratios and group sizes in Montessori classrooms with credentialed teachers.

As we've seen, the ratios and group size licensing requirements differ from state to state. A look at the reasoning behind these differences would be really interesting.

The real point, though, is the tendency of state agencies and policy makers to work within a "one size fits all" implementation model. It makes sense from a logistics point of view. But this is exactly why Montessori grassroots advocacy activism should engage with the agency community. If we as a community, even at a state level, can agree on a threshold or baseline (leaving plenty of room for respectful diversity within our own implementation of Montessori quality), we can share and educate those who are responsible for implementing state and federal policy.

Many of you who have reached out as a community have found great reception from state agency people. They want to hear from the Montessori community. Our work is to present ourselves as unified, thoughtful, professionals who share the goals of high quality, safe and healthy, educational experiences for all children. Those of you working to bring an inclusive group of Montessori educators together is the starting point. Finding our common ground through respectful "internal" conversations will, hopefully, lead to the unified message we need to participate in the "external" advocacy discussions that will allow high quality Montessori education to thrive for all children.

Responses? Comments? 

One School's Story?

This was sent to us from a Montessori Head of school. It 's a story so similar to the one we hear from many of you, the impact of licensing rules and regulations on Montessori philosophy and practice. The specific "issue" may vary but the story is basically the same.

How do we as Montessori educators respond? Do we just "accept that it is a rule and there is nothing we can do about it" or do we support, educate, and act to support high quality Montessori education?

This is exactly at the heart of grassroots advocacy in action. We can demonstrate accountability while preserving what Montessori has to offer for children and parents. We can compromise with integrity.

When I was first introduced to Montessori education, the most impressive aspect was the philosophy's deep and abiding respect for the child, and the dignity with which the child was treated.  In every way, the children are treated like human beings, with human rights and responsibilities. This was the environment that I wanted my children to learn and grow in.  This was the philosophy to which I then devoted my career. Even the simple fact that the 3 to 6 year old child was trusted-- not only to recognize the urge, but to use the restroom independently and with the dignity that is our right as adults--impressed me. I knew that in some child care environments, adults herd children into a public style restroom stalls without doors, based on the schedule determined by the adult, where children are expected to perform their toileting on command.  I learned in some local public schools, children must estimate and get the number of squares of toilet paper they will need out in the hall before using the toilet, and then to emerge again to get a squirt of soap and a hand towel for washing their hands. Never, I said, in a Montessori school. That would never happen in a Montessori school. Recently our school had our annual State Department of Education inspection for our Preschool Child Care Program.  Our inspector has instructed us that we must remove the doors from the Children's House bathrooms within our classrooms' footprints, and put up either a half-door or a curtain over which an adult could see a child using the restroom.   Our "single seat" residential powder room-style bathrooms which are just like the bathrooms the children use independently in their own homes--except there are no locks on the doors--are no longer acceptable, despite over 20 years of passing the DOE inspections. The inspector's rationale:  children are not to be left unsupervised, and once a child enters the bathroom and closes the door they are unsupervised.  Our highly-qualified Montessori credentialed teachers are conscious of the child's whereabouts, the amount of time in the bathroom, and sounds which could signify trouble or distress. But according to the State, supervision means "adults must be able to see and hear the child at all times".  And according to the inspector, that means watching the child use the toilet. Curtains on the bathroom door, a teacher standing there watching the child use the toilet...that is not a respectful atmosphere, and there is no dignity there. How can we show children that we trust them to make wise choices and simultaneously strip them of this opportunity to independently choose well? How can we show them that we respect them, and expect them to respect others in return, if we cannot respect this basic human dignity? This is one more way that "one sized fits all" regulations--created for care givers who aren't highly qualified, credentialed adults--are harming our Montessori learning environments.  Can we really allow our philosophy to be eroded by these regulations?  Or can we join together to stand for the Montessori philosophy that is so critical for our country's future generations?

If we don't stand up for the children and families we serve, we all risk losing the value of Montessori education. The time is now.

Policy Update: What Might the Mid-Terms Mean for Education?

By now, most of know the general outcome of the mid-term elections, but how might the results effect education? Check out your state.

CA- In the most expensive race for State Superintendent ever, Torlakson keeps his position. He had strong backing from the state's Teacher Unions, he supports Common Core, and represents a "status quo" for the state.

CO- Governor Hickenlooper (D) has been declared the winner. He has supported an overhauling for funding of public schools. The Denver Preschool Program which will mean an increase in sales tax in support of tuition credits for pre-school passed.

CT- Governor Malloy (D)- has supported expansion of charter schools and a reduction in student assessments.

FL- Rick Scott- (R) is the governor. He was strongly opposed by the state Teacher's Unions. He supports the state tax-credit scholarship program and wants to increase K-12 spending.

GA- Governor Nathan Deal (R)- supports a state-run network of charter schools.

HI- a constitutional amendment to use public funds for enrollment in private preschool programs, strongly opposed by the state Teacher's Union, failed. Hawaii is now the only the state in the US that does not have a mixed delivery- public and private providers- system for early childhood education.

IL- Governer Bruce Rauner (R)- wants to limit public sector unions. Voters approved a 3% increase on income taxes for those with an income of $1 million plus to go to education.
Goldman Sachs and Northern Trust are backing Mayor Emanuels' proposed plan for private funding to expand preschool in Chicago with a $17 million investment. This will be the largest private investment in the country if it is approved by the IL State Board of Education.

IN- If approved by the Indianapolis City Council, $350 million in private donations from PNC Foundation and the Eli Lilly Foundation will make public preschool a reality. The program would expand to include 4 counties by next Fall with the plan to serve 1,300 children.

MA- The state has a new governor, Charlie Baker (R) who wants to increase the number of charter schools.

ME- Governor Paul LePage (R)- wants competitive grants to increase early childhood education programs.

PA- Governor Tom Wolf (D)- wants to increase K-12 spending.

KS- Governor Sam Brownback (R)- is calling for an increase in K-12 funding, an easing of teacher licensure requirements, and an increase in school choice.

NH- a proposed pilot program to reduce student assessment in 4 or its 84 districts with a move to performance based exams needs approval by the State Board of Education.

The city of Seattle has approved Prop 1B using property tax to develop "available, affordable, licensed preschool options.

TN- This is the latest state to announce its "public vetting" of the Common Core standards.

TX- Governor Greg Abbott (R)- wants to increase early childhood education while making cuts to Head Start and K-12 education.

WI- Governor Scott Walker (R)- who restricted collective bargaining of labor unions, want to expand the state's voucher program and repeal Common Core.

We'll review other changes and what they might mean on the federal level soon. Stay tuned!

Grassroots, Advocacy, Activism?

Grassroots, Advocacy, Activism?  Why? How?

“Montessori education is no longer going to be an option.” This was the opinion recently shared by a fellow Montessori educator now working in the world of educational policy.

A pretty dire prediction but it might just be true. Universal Pre-K with its Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, Professional Registry/Career Ladders, and Licensing Rules and Regulations; K-12 mandates for Common Core curriculum standards, student assessments, and School Report Cards policies- and almost none of it accurately measures or even recognizes alternative pedagogies.

As people committed to high quality Montessori education, what can we do? Do we just give in? Do we accept less than we know we have to offer?

There is an alternative. Together we CAN work for change.

How?

Grassroots- (gras-roots) noun. A movement driven by the “politics” of a community. It’s creation is natural, spontaneous, and organic. It is at a local level. It is common or ordinary people rather than the leadership of a social organization. It is managed by volunteers to support local issues that can lead to helping national issues.

Advocacy- (ad-vo-ca-cy) noun. Public support for a particular cause with a group process that aims to influence social systems or institutions (like a state agency). Advocacy can represent a series of actions taken with issues highlighted to change the “what is” into “what should be.”

Advocacy is a process that:  1. questions the implementation of policy

                                              2. raises issues of significance

                                              3. is inclusive,  engaging- providing opportunity for public conversation

                                              4. proposes solutions

Activism- (ac-tiv-ism) noun. The action of using a vigorous campaign, or collaborative effort, to bring about change.

 Activists try to persuade people to change behavior, or impacts, through various means including: 

                                                  1. community building                                   

                                                  2. cooperative movement     

                                                  3. voluntary simplicity

                                                  4. social media

                                                  5. direct action

Everyone one of us can contribute. The time is now.  Will you join the grassroots advocacy activism in support of Montessori education?

TEST Act Introduced in Congress

For those of you in the Montessori community concerned with standardized testing of your students and the ever increasing numbers of those tests...

Rep. Steve Israel- D-NY introduced the Tackling Excessive Standardized Testing Act (TEST Act) on Thursday. The proposed bill is backed by the American Federal of Teachers.

Highlights include:

• Limiting testing to one per year for students in grades 3-8. English in grades 3, 5 and 7 and Math in grades 4, 6 and 8.
• Schools in the top 15% would move to a 4 year cycle of testing

This bill is likely to be a hard sell. Both Kline and Miller- top R and D on the House Education Committee support the current testing schedule in their re authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bill. Tom Harkin- chair of Senate Education Committee also supports the current system of testing in his version of the ESEA.

Of interest, Arne Duncan, USDE, has begun discussing the "burden of over testing" and has suggested that his department be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Read more here:  http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2014/09/aft_backs_newest_proposal_to_r.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

Policy Updates that Impact Montessori Education

Since Congress has returned from the August recess, education legislation, especially early childhood education, has seen an increase in bipartisan support. Recent polls indicate that upwards of 70% of Americans polled support greater financial support for early childhood education. After all, who could argue with the notion of providing high quality education for "our youngest, most vulnerable citizens?"

Strengthening Education Through Research Act- passed the House in May but has now been passed by the Senate HELP (Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions) Comm. and will soon be up for a full vote. This bill reauthorizes educational research through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) but now requires a balance of topics on preK, K-12, and post secondary education. A change to "scientifically valid research" rather than "scientifically based research standards" will encourage the use of more methodologies.

Child Care Development Block Grant passed the Senate this past spring but has just passed the House with changes which have not yet been published to the web. This bill reauthorizes the CCDBG which provides early childhood education program expansion for low income families (a family of 4 making $50,000 annually) by providing vouchers which can be used by a family to choose the ECE program of their choice. Private providers and independent schools can apply for the use of these funds provided they demonstrate a standard of quality established by the state or local jurisdiction. Translated, this means a given score on a QRIS , recognized staff qualifications and education, and mandated professional development.

Strong Start for America's Children passed the Senate HELP Committee earlier this year but is now being taken up again as legislators realize that Early Childhood Education is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for voters. This bill would grant federal funding to both school districts and private providers to serve children 0-6 years of age (income levels have not been determined but the trend is towards increasing the minimum for a family of 4- in OK it is $137,000) as long as quality standards are met and all ECE teachers have a degree in early childhood. This bill is being sponsored by Senator Harkin and Representative Kline, both of whom will be retiring at the end of this session.

School Improvement Grants administered by the USDE have recently added to the model so that local school districts may now use funds to implement early learning interventions to add pre-K to elementary schools. As with all of this federal funding, there are teacher education and professional development requirements, and mandated early learning standards requirements.

At the state level-

WA- increase of child care subsidy by 4%; revising Early Childhood Education and Assistance program standards of quality.
NH- NH Supreme Court overturned a ruling striking down the state's tax credit scholarship program. The program allows businesses to receive tax credits for donations made to organizations used for tuition at another district school or private school.
FL-the teacher's union is backing a lawsuit against the state's education tax credit scholarship program. This program allows businesses and individuals to claim tax credits for donations made to state approved organizations which give money to students for tuition at private schools.
NYC- the universal preK program which opened this fall is serving 50,000 children. This is an increase of 20,000 from last year with a prediction of serving 73.000 by fall 2015. The center found that to have enough spaces for children they had to use a mixed delivery system of public and independent providers but the standards for quality are the same for all. There is no income limit for families wanting to apply for these slots. Because of the requirements for teacher education, there are not enough high quality teachers and the city is fast-tracking individuals to get the needed training.
IN- was recently awarded by the Schools for Tomorrow Conference as having the "best voucher program" in the country because it offers autonomy of the independent schools, the $ follows the child, and there are no caps on the numbers of vouchers awarded.

What does all of this mean for the Montessori community? Regardless of your school setting, be it public or independent, and regardless of the students being targeted for service- low income, at risk, ELL, special needs- the one thing in common for all Montessori schools is the definitions of high quality being established at the state and federal level. These qualifications have not, for the most part, been determined with involvement of Montessori educators and in many ways, have a direct negative impact on our schools.

The issue then is How do we support and protect high quality Montessori programming regardless of setting or student population? How do we compromise and comply with accountability without compromising our integrity? If we really want to provide a Montessori education for as many children as possible, isn't it important to have a conversation about the quality of that Montessori education?

Comments?

An Opportunity for the Montessori Community? Preschool Development Grant Update

The USDE and DHH announced yesterday that 32 states have submitted their "intent to apply" for a share of the $250 million grant competition. Final applications are due Oct. 14th.

There are two types of grants- one for development of early childhood programs and systems of accountability and one for expansion of existing programs and accountability.

The states applying for development grants include: HI, IN, MS, MO, MT, NV, NH, UT, and Puerto Rico.

States applying for expansion money include: AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, IL, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NC, OH, OR, PA, RI, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, and WV.

If you live in a development state, now would be perfect time to make a connection with the state department writing the application. Call your state Child Care Licensing office, or state Department of Education to find the correct agency and person. Make a contact, ask for a meeting to share general information about the value of including Montessori as an option for early childhood education in your state.

If you live in an expansion state, now would be a perfect time to get involved. Contact your state Office of Early Learning (or equivalent- it might be licensing) and find out how the Montessori community can participate.

Washington- state provides a good "case study" for a state applying for an expansion grant. The Department of Early Learning (DEL) is "seeking input from the community." WA. is currently providing 10,091 preschool slots for families but with additional federal funds, they propose increasing that to 25,091 spaces. Additional funds would also be used to provide "curriculum support, professional development and tuition, and to increase private pay options."
WA. is defining high quality as: full day (5 hrs), highly trained teachers, an evidenced based curriculum, access to comprehensive services, a rich learning environment, and positive teacher-child interactions.

What makes WA interesting is its similarity to many of the states seeking Preschool Development Grant money. Many states want input from the community, all are increasing availability of programming, all see the need for a mixed delivery system that includes public and private providers, and all are mandated in this grant to both increase slots for children but also increase "quality" based on standards not that different from WA.

High quality Montessori education meets all of these. The task before us is educating and explaining how and why. It's all in the translation. Our most basic advocacy work can be explaining to these state agencies how we can contribute to their data base of high quality programs and a highly trained work force. We must interrupt how Montessori education meets the standards and criteria of accountability with the language and presentation that doesn't require us to compromise on best practice but helps others understand just what that is and how it fits in serving the needs of all children.

As always, Montessori Forward is about Montessori educators supporting one another on our common goal. Have a question, have a story to tell about your meeting with a state agency? Share so the rest of us might learn and explore these issues together.

Let's not miss this golden opportunity to become a part of the conversation on just what great education looks like.

Preschool Development Grant Application Announced- What Does This Have to Do with Us?

The US Department of Education with Health and Human Services has announced criteria for applying for Preschool Development Grants. Comments and personal testimony were solicited from the departments in designing these grants. You may remember that there were a number of comments posted to the department's website and Montessori education was well represented at the personal testimony opportunity.

There are two types of grants. Only states may apply. Intent to submit is due by Sep. 11 with the final application due by Oct. 14th.
Development Grants are eligible to the 15 states that currently serve less than 10% of their low to middle income 4 year olds. Five to eight grants of $5-20 million for 4 years will be awarded.
Expansion Grants are for those states (35) that currently have robust preschool programs in place to expand enrollment of low to middle income children. Seven to twelve grants of $10-35 million for 4 years will be awarded.

Grants will be awarded to high quality programs which include:

• a professional development program for all early childhood teachers
• low ratios and group sizes
• comprehensive services to children and families
• provide a continuum of service from birth to 8 years old
• can provide matching funds at the state level
• use a minimum of 50% of the award to increase enrollment

What does this mean for the Montessori community?

There is no specific mention of Montessori education in these grant applications. But once again, high quality is defined with criteria that is, at best, is neutral and, at worst, is negative for high quality Montessori programs. We all share the goal of providing outstanding preschool opportunities for as many children as possible. But how can Montessori education be included as one of the best opportunities if our quality is not recognized? The Montessori teacher credential is not recognized at the level it should be given the requirements and competencies of MACTE accredited teacher education programs, Montessori classroom environments and programs are not fairly assessed as states use a tool that was created originally to measure quality in Head Start programs, the ratios and group sizes that are optimal for children to benefit from a high quality Montessori classroom are not understood or appreciated, rules and regulations regarding materials used are often counter to Montessori best practice. As more and more public funding is available, many Montessori schools are losing enrollment or compromising best practice. We have to be able to demonstrate our high quality to participate.

How does the Montessori community become a part of the conversation?

We need to form strong groups of Montessorians who come together. We need to organize ourselves in support of our fellow educators, parents and families, and most importantly, the children we teach. We need to prepare for advocacy with data (how many schools, families, and children are represented in your state?, how are Montessori classrooms in your state being ranked on QRIS?), with knowledge about those rules and regulations that are problematic for us, with information that will help us educate state level agencies and offices.

This is what Montessori Forward is all about. We are here to help you form or strengthen your state group, to help you organize with a structure and people power needed, and to help you prepare for engaging in advocacy. Together we can become a part of the conversation, we can demonstrate our high quality, and we can offer an amazing preschool opportunity for children and their families.

Write us at montforward@gmail.com. Look to see if a group is forming in your state or region. Check out the tools, templates, and information on Montessori Forward. Join the list serve to network with one another, check out our new Facebook page. 

Another Opportunity for the Montessori Community?

This is an interesting policy brief put together by the National Women's Law Center highlighting changes to early childhood education in each state.

Trends include:

• raising the income levels of families eligible for assistance for high quality pre-school programs for their children
• increased reimbursement payments to programs who serve eligible children
• an increase in public funding resulting in an increase in children served
• emphasis on a mixed delivery system- meaning that both private and public programs can qualify for public funds

With 50% of American's children living at or below the poverty level, these trends mean more and more children can receive high quality pre-school experiences. And as income levels continually rise, more and more families will be able to receive public assistance.

This is an opportunity for the Montessori community to not only share the benefits of a Montessori education with more families, but to become an important part of that delivery system. Public funding means greater enrollment of children in both private and public programs.

To read about your state:

http://www.nwlc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/state_early_care_and_education_updates_july_2014.pdf

Advocacy Tips: 101

We want to support Montessori education. We would like more and more children and families to experience the benefits and value of a Montessori education in both independent and public programs and schools. We want to protect "authentic" "high quality" "fully implemented" Montessori practice.

We all know the variety of opinions within our community. And how many of us have said to a perspective family something like "You know there is no trade mark on the name Montessori."

So where do we start?

1. Define your community: There is power in numbers when we try to influence rules and regulations, state agencies,  policy implementors and those who are crafting policy. In bringing together a group of colleagues, are you going to define standards for membership, are you going to be inclusive of anyone who is interested in Montessori? The who, what, and why of those in your community is a good starting point. ( See Suggested Guidelines for Montessori Groups- Resources and Action).

2. Do your homework: What are the issues that are of concern to your group? After discussion and consensus that respects and listens to everyone's opinion and really appreciates the collective wisdom and knowledge of your group, prioritize your goals.

3. Know your message:  State the problem, articulate your specific goal. Determine your "talking points" clearly, and concretely. "We want to practice authentic Montessori education" is not going to be understood in the same way as "We would like to discuss a variance in ratios and maximum group size for these reasons."

4. Establish a relationship: Determine the right person in the right department for your particular issue. This can take some real digging,  sometimes with referrals from person to person until you finally find the person who can actually have some influence on your issue. Schedule a meeting, ideally with a phone call, and plan to meet face to face at the time that is convenient for the person you are meeting with.

5. Be professional: Be considerate of this person's time. Be thoughtful about how you are going to approach them, maybe consider limiting the number of participants you bring based on the kind of meeting. Try to put yourself in this person's shoes. Most state agencies are understaffed, have limited financial resources, and have limited time frames to implement programs and policies.

6. Tell your story: Clearly, concisely and in language the person you are speaking with will understand. Here is what we are asking for, here the 3-4 reasons why, and here is a possible solution that we can provide in working with you.

7. Follow up:  Send a thank you note (remember grace and courtesy). Maybe suggest an invitation to visit your school to see Montessori education directly in action. Schedule the next time you will meet with a suggested action plan.

8. Communicate with your colleagues: Share what you have learned with your group, get them excited to join you. Network with other like minded groups and individuals. Expand your influence.

And for Tools, and Templates and work your fellow Montessorians are engaged in, visit Montessori Forward. Leave your comments, ideas, suggestions, and questions here. Join the List serve, like the MF Face Book page. Join in with the Montessori community.

How will the Montessori community respond?

The first Preschool Nation Summit was recently held in NYC. The theme of this conference was

How does the US become a pre-school nation that believes all children deserve high-quality early learning opportunities?

A great question and a great goal !

Mayor De Blasio, D. NYC, in his keynote address shared how this goal is being met in NYC. 50,000 4 year olds will be provided with pre-school opportunities beginning this fall, with 70,000 children to be served by next year; available to all families regardless of income.

Suzanne Immerman, senior advisor to Arne Duncan at the USDE shared that another $250 million will soon be made available at the state and local level through the Pre-School Development Grants program.

www.preschoolnationorg/preschool-nation-summit-2014/

How does the US become a pre-school nation that believes all children deserve high-quality early learning opportunities?

What does high quality mean? How is it defined and measured? What accountability tools and processes are being put into place- through QRIS, Early Learning Standards, curriculum approvals?

What are the goals this pre-school nation will have for the thousands of children deserving of  a high-quality learning opportunity?

How will teachers who have the education and experience to provide high quality opportunities for all going to be recognized, prepared, and retained?

How can enough high-quality pre-school opportunities be provided, particularly in such a rapid time frame?


The Montessori education community should be a voice in this conversation. We have a time-tested and research based philosophy, teaching method, and curriculum that works. We have clear standards and goals for what high quality pre-school means. We have teachers who are highly educated and experienced. We have a "mixed delivery system" of private and public programs ready and willing to enroll children from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and learning needs.

How will we be a part of the US becoming a pre-school nation that believes all children deserve high-quality learning opportunities?
We each have a role and contribution to make. What are you going to do?

Montessori Forward

From our friend at The Montessori Observer

Forward, Adovcacy! Now With ECERS-R

Posted on July 28, 2014 | Leave a comment

That comment the other day about advocacy for public Montessori obviously caught my attention. More people should know about the outstanding advocacy work at Montessori Forward, a website, blog, Google group, and community of Montessorians which make up a crowd-sourced yet deeply researched source for the latest advocacy and public policy news.

Now the MForward community has come out with a tool that could be a huge boost for Montessori Primary programs engaging with QRIS (Quality Rating and Improvemt Systems) policies in their states.  You may have heard of the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale, or ECERS-R, a widely used instrument for rating pre-school programs under QRIS.  Montessori schools can do badly on the ECERS-R for lacking multiple sets of materials, plush toys, and dress-up.

MForward’s The Montessori Guide to ECERS-R, professionally written and incorporating successful work from several states, aligns Montessori practice with the goals of the ECERS-R standards and explains our developmental theory and pedagogy. It’s available on the site for anyone to use.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from Montessori Forward. Here’s a sampling:

• Montessori Forward was first on the scene with QRIS and keeps a running narrative of Montessori schools’ struggles, strategies, and successes. There’s a great page of resources here.
• Ohio recently passed charter school legislation allowing children under 5, as well as providing state teacher credentials for AMI and AMS trained teachers.
• The Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a multi-billion dollar piece of legislation will be revised this year for the first time since 1996 with huge implications for all of early childhood education. Here’s thepost; here’s a deep dive. Amendments specifically mentioning Montessori were under consideration, but may not make into the final draft.

Follow the blog for so much more. It’s an incredible resource.

Thank you, Dave! You can follow Dave and The Montessori Observer at

www.montessoriobserver.com

Interesting post on the ECERS. The entire study will be in the Library at Montessori Forward.

You might also want to take a look at The Montessori Guide to the ECERS-R. This guide was created by volunteers at Montessori Forward for you to use as you advocate for a more accurate assessment of Montessori environments. It is meant as a supplement to the manual used by ECERS-R raters to help them observe the ways in which a high quality Montessori environment meets the goal of an ECERS-R standard but might differ in specifics. This teaches those who are not familiar with a Montessori environment what to look for.

For more information for its use in your advocacy work, please contact us at montforward@gmail.com.

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Study: Preschool Evaluation Tool Does Not Track With Child Outcomes

By Christina Samuels on April 30, 2014 3:00 PM

The Early Childhood Environmental Rating Scale-Revised, an assessment of preschool quality that is a common factor in the quality rating and improvement scales in place in many states, has little connection to the academic, language, and social functioning of children evaluated at age 5, according to a study published in the spring 2014 edition of the journalEducation Finance and Quality. 

In addition, children with more exposure to risk factors also didn't appear to derive any academic or behavioral benefit from centers that earned higher ratings under the ECERS-R, the study says.

The ECERS-R currently consists of 43 evaluated elements which are divided into seven subcategories, such as "space and furnishings," "personal care routines" and "language-reasoning." A score of 1 is considered to be inadequate quality, 3 is minimal quality, 5 is good quality, and 7, the top of the scale, is excellent quality.

In the study, the researchers used data collected through the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study by the National Center for Education Statistics. About 800 children were a part of the study, and trained observers evaluated the quality of their preschool programs using the ECERS-R tool. The paper's findings were that children, including children deemed to be at-risk, failed to benefit more from preschool programs deemed to meet medium or high levels of quality compared those that were low quality.

This finding is important because scores on the ECERS-R are a major part of the QRIS programs, which generally give preschools star ratings based on the combination of several measures of quality. An earlier study published by the same research team found that QRIS star ratings also don't appear to relate to children's academic and social skills. 

Terri J. Sabol, a postdoctoral fellow at Institute for Policy Research  at Northwestern University and the lead author of this study, said in an interview with Education Week  that the assessment may be useful in ensuring that centers meet a certain baseline level of quality—indeed, studies of the ECERS-R tool conducted in the 1990s and early 2000s found a positive relationship between children's development and high ratings on the scale, and the scale may have been essential in prompting programs to meet certain levels of structural quality, the study suggests.

But now that preschool centers are mostly meeting the broad standards that the ECERS-R looks for, it may be necessary to develop a more finely-grained tool, Sabol said. "Maybe we need more nuanced measures of quality."

 

This is from ED. Week and specifically explores Mission Statements of Independent Schools. However, as we organize groups, both formal and informal, for advocacy at the state and national level, thinking about a mission statement that really says who we are and what we plan to do can be a guide to us as much as a message to the world.

Montessori Forward

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Independent School Mission Statements and Missions

By Peter Gow on July 18, 2014 9:21 AM | No comments

In a few past posts here I've touched on the role of mission statements in guiding each independent school along its paths toward doing whatever it purports to do. Remembering that an independent school is by definition a self-governing institution operating outside the formal "control" of a higher body (say, a diocese or a religious province or even another non-profit entity), the need for some kind of pole star or driving impetus is critical if the school is to have any coherence in its purposes, its programs, and its culture.

Although the formal acknowledgment of mission in a concise statement is a product of the last half century, accrediting bodies were quick to focus on the mission statement as the central element of the school accrediting process. For many years this process was largely a close study, first by the school and then by a visiting team, of how and how fully a school was enacting or implementing or carrying out its mission, supplemented by some questions around basic operational issues like financial sustainability, compliance, and safety.

This process led to a kind of enshrinement of the mission statement creation process, in which schools struggled to capture in a paragraph or so the essence of their being and purpose. Schools could agonize over the process, with committees, consultants, and resident wordsmiths racking up hours (billable, from the consultants' perspective) as they struggled to get a mission statement that was "just so." Cheerleading from the business world, whose boom mission years were those following the publication of mission-lover Jim Collins's Good to Great (and its step-child, Good to Great and the Social Sectors), turned mission-writing into an art form, somewhere between haiku and sonnet.

As an art form, the mission statement had its dangers. As short-form poetry gave birth to the dirty limerick, mission statements became highly susceptible to both parody and banality. My favorite parody at the moment comes from Maria Semple's brilliant dissection of independent school parent culture, Where'd You Go, Bernadette (Little, Bown, 2012), in which the mission of the "Galer Street School" is this: 

Galer Street School is a place where compassion, academics, and global connectitude join together to create civic-minded citizens of a sustainable and diverse planet.

As one character notes, this is a school that doesn't just think outside the box--its leaders "think outside the dictionary." Alas, dropped into a compendium of real mission statements, Galer Street's might not immediately stand out as bogus.

In a part of my life I get to talk to schools and school people about things to do with telling their own story, and my work usually begins by looking at a school's mission statement. Some are quite compelling: specific, realistic, and concise without being reductive. Others, however, stray into territory marked out in this generic statement aggregated by Lauren Hasten for a 2009 article forIndependent School magazine: 

Our school provides a supportive community while encouraging individuality, nurtures the spirit while challenging the intellect, and inspires a lifelong love of learning while teaching respect, responsibility, compassion, and an appreciation of diversity.

Like many real statements, this one leaves no cliché unturned and is almost unassailably true for so many schools--independent, public, religious, charter, and possibly even "home"--as to be virtually useless as a way to understand what a school using it might actually be like.

The essence of a mission statement is of course to communicate a school's mission, but in reality looking at mission in the broadest sense is a much more useful way for schools and outsiders to evaluate the degree to which a school is doing what is claims to be doing. "Mission" finds expression in such areas as
* values and vision statements
* strategic thinking, priorities, and directions
* rules and policies for students, employees, and families
* the structure of the academic and extracurricular programs
* expressions of "moral culture," including programs in "character" and "life-skills" education
* systems of rewards and recognition

A challenge for any school, of course, is to both know and understand its mission beyond just the simple mission statement. The greater and most essential challenge, however, is to live and communicate that mission fully--to make, if you will, the Venn diagram of a school's "mission" and "experience" a perfect circle. For most schools in any sector, however, the diagram will represent some areas of non-overlap; these are the areas the school must work on.

Independently developed and individually expressed missions are at the core of the independent school milieu, and with this freedom comes, as I have tried to stress in this space, a responsibility to enact to our missions in ways that represent some positive social good that offsets, or compensates for, the other privileges regarding taxation and regulation that have been granted to independent schools. One might say this responsibility begins at the top, at the school governance level, but it extends right through the administration, faculty, staff and even to students and parents. This is a tremendous obligation, but there are plenty of schools that understand and work hard to live up to it, both in the work they do on their campuses and in their posture in the community. They understand that a school's mission is more than just a bunch of lovely words.

News and Updates for the Montessori Community

Some interesting news to share with you~

OHIO HBG 487 includes two provisions of great impact on the Montessori community. First, this legislation provides for enrollment of students under the age of 5 in Montessori charter schools. This allows for the full three year age cycle in the Montessori primary classrooms.
Secondly, this legislation provides an alternative path for obtaining a state teaching license for those who hold an AMS* or AMI teacher credential. A Montessori credentialed teacher can now apply for a state license, at the age span of credential, and can, therefore, teach in a public Montessori school.
The passage of this bill is thanks to the ongoing work and effort of NAMTA and AVANTI. It helps to set the ever important precedent as we move forward on similar initiatives in other states.
* note that all AMS Teacher Education Programs are accredited by MACTE.

The Pacific Northwest Montessori Association advocacy action has resulted in the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL) defining "early childhood" to include children six years of age. From the DEL- "This is so that child care programs can have greater flexibility in grouping children near the cutoff between preschool age and school-age.
This, therefore, provides for the full 3 year age span in Montessori primary programs in the state.
Congratulations PN Montessori Association.

Following a nation wide trend, the state of Washington has just announced that by 2015, all pre-K programs wanting to receive public funding to serve children, will be required to participate in QRIS.
Illinois has recently decided that ALL early child care programs in the state, private and public, will be required to participate in that state's QRIS. These two states follow in the footsteps of KY which requires participation by all programs.
Many states and cities with universal pre-K programs are requiring participation in QRIS if programs want to apply for public funds. Another trend we are seeing, which means that all of this has a greater impact on the Montessori community, is that of increasing the income limit for children to receive free pre-school. One program already offering free preschool to all families, regardless of income, is the Universal preschool program to begin this September in NYC.
It will be more and more difficult for private Montessori schools to ignore these trends.

Illinois- in addition to making QRIS mandatory, there are several other changes taking place in IL. The Gateways Professional Registry is evaluating specific competencies to determine teacher education and experience levels on the career lattice; a mandatory statewide assessment of kindergarten students- The Kindergarten Individual Development survey- will be instituted; early childhood programs are being studied for their validity in meeting the state's QRIS standards; and to ensure maximum coordination of departments, Inter agency Project Teams, between the Office of Early Childhood Development and the Office of the Governor, will focus on implementation, workforce development, community collaboration, and data and outcomes.
What makes IL particularly important is that it serves as a model and mentor for several other states.

A recent meeting sponsored by the Department of Early Learning in Washington was held to review the state's use of its Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant. This meeting was attended by representatives from Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. A Forum within this meeting focused on the integration of IDEA- part C, the federal legislation guaranteeing service for special needs children, within early childhood education programs and the need to have partnerships with local agencies and schools to build a coordinated approach to service.
The trend to require appropriate education and services to young children with learning differences will impact all early childhood programs and the requirements of staff working with those children.

Yet another trend we are seeing in Early Childhood Education is the importance of serving children 0-3. The most recent recipients of RTT ELC grants ( GA, KY, MI, NJ, PA, and VT) all included infants and toddler programs and dollars in their applications. Not only is money being made available to serve the youngest of children, but early learning guidelines, as well as requirements for education and experience for the "workforce" are resulting in mandated professional development. Another public initiative that will impact Montessori programs.

At the Federal level, both the House and Senate Committees on Education are putting in last minute work before the 5 week recess beginning at the end of the month. The Higher Education Act will provide funds for states to rank their teacher education programs (university, college, and free standing, including Montessori TEP's) on several criteria such as measures of teacher impact on student learning, employer evaluations, self identified assessment of preparedness for competence in the classroom, number of teachers still working after 3 years, and the number of teachers in full time positions. This data will be used to determine the quality of a teacher education program. Programs not scoring well will be required to institute an improvement plan to be monitored by the state. The Post Secondary Institution Ranting System- PIRS- will be created and monitored by the USDOE.

We have posted some recent research studies in the Montessori Forward Library, including an evaluation of the ECERS-R titled Do Standard Measures of Preschool Quality Used in Statewide Policy Predict School Readiness. Senior authors are Terri Sabol and Robert Pianta. The study appeared in Education Finance and Policy in the Spring 2014, vol.9, no. 2 , pages 116-164 issue.

And finally, a quote that we like-

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not" Dr. Seuss

Let us hear from you in your comments, and the List Serve. It's time to build our community so please invite your colleagues to take a look.

Organizing for Change: Lessons Learned Part three

Go Sow To Get Fast: There is part of us that wants to see change happen QUICKLY! so we
are eager to “get down to business”. However, investing time and energy to make sure the entire
group is looking at the same thing (problem) in the same way (all perspectives are expressed and
understood) by (1) making all information explicit, (2) giving as much attention to the process as as
the content, and (3) fostering a “win-win”, “both-and” culture, can embed ownership and
alignment within the process, ultimately making the group more coherent and effective. [The
Collaborative Operating System]

Create a Community of "Fearless Leaders": To accomplish something we have never done
before, requires us to travel through “the land just beyond proficiency”. Whether it is struggling
with a camera during a video conference, having difficulty accessing Google docs, or stretching
ourselves to stay engaged in a conversation that feels threatening, we will need to grapple with
feelings of incompetence, frustration, and vulnerability. Anticipating the learning curve
normalizes and depersonalizes the awkwardness. Establishing a culture where learning is
supported and mistakes are embraced will nurture personal and collective growth, as well as
group cohesion.

Define Who "We" Are: In her book, Children Who are Not Yet Peaceful, Donna Bryant Goertz
illustrates the healing power of inclusion. The mindfulness community considers
loving kindness/compassion to be a skill set we can develop by reflecting on: What are we paying
attention to? Whom are we paying attention to? Whom becomes the other? Whom do we
ignore? By observing and being aware, we train our attention to include or exclude.
Improving our ability to monitor our attention gives us the potential to harness the healing power
of inclusion.

Leverage the Power of Systems Thinking: Dr. Montessori understood systems! (The power of
Montessori education lies in its totality and interrelationships; it can never be replicated by
piecemeal copying because the synergy of Montessori education is created by the way all the
parts work together.) Montessorians can leverage the power of systems to shift our community
from fragmentation to cohesion (until we do, time and energy shortages will remain one of the
greatest obstacles to collaborative work), anticipate “delays” (collective work to promote public
awareness and affect policy will ultimately lighten our individual loads, but there will be a time
lag between these actions and their consequences, which, unrecognized, might lead to
discouragement), and harness Collective Impact to create a unified voice for policy change.
[The Fifth Discipline]

Welcome Chaos: Today’s rate and scale of change, and degree of complexity, require more
innovative, adaptive, and self-regulating systems. There are many organizational tools and
structures that harness the group’s dynamic capacity to self-organize (a concept that has many
parallels to the child’s drive to self-construct), including Dynamic Governance/Sociocracy,
Open Space Technology, World Cafe, and Appreciative Inquiry; by inviting in chaos (in the sense
of “having many possibilities”) they allow innovative solutions to emerge. [Mapping Dialogue]

Tomorrow's entrry will bring this thoughtful article full circle.

Organizing for Change: Lessons Learned Part Two

Enjoy part two of this article on Organizing by Laureen Golden, M.Ed.

Anticipate Crucial Conversations: A Montessorian’s task to “aid life” touches on the sacred.
So although diversity can increase a group’s intelligence, when it comes to the ideas we care
most deeply about, diverse opinions can feel profoundly threatening and trigger our “fight or
flight” response, causing us to respond with violence (by attacking each other’s ideas and
feelings), or silence (disengaging from the conversation). By anticipating crucial conversations
as part of our process, we can better prepare ourselves, and effectively manage these moments.
[Crucial Conversations]


Prioritize a Need for Safety: How can groups leverage the power of diversity, even
when the stakes are high and emotions are running strong? Monitoring feelings of safety enables
us to recognize when we are in the midst of a crucial conversation. In “real time”, we can make
“repair attempts”, by letting the other person know we care about his/her best interests and goals
(mutual purpose), and that we care about him/her (mutual respect), thereby reestablishing safety
so collaborative work can continue. [Crucial Conversations]

Invest in Building a "Pool of Shared Meaning": When ideas, feelings, and opinions are openly
shared, a group develops a “pool of shared meaning”. The more information that is in that
pool, the better decisions the group can make. Developing a rich pool of shared meaning
requires an investment of time, but it ultimately serves the group’s effectiveness and efficiency,
by helping us move beyond “your way” and “my way” so that we can discover “our way”.
[Crucial Conversations]

To be continued tomorrow.

Organizing for Change: Lessons Learned Part 1

Humanity is grappling with the limits and potentially dire consequence of our current model of competition, conquest and consumption, and desperately needs an alternative vision. Dr. Montessori provided a vision for a global community and a peaceful world, as well as a method to bring this vision to fruition! What remains for us, is to organize our community and cultivate the unified cooperation required to bring this transforming education into the lives of more children!


Organizing for Change: Lessons Learned

by Laureen Golden, MEd, LISW
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
~African Proverb
Working together is indeed powerful ... but it can also be quite difficult, especially when we consider the
complexity of the problems we seek to address, and the diversity within our community. Our ability to aid
life and transform society hinges on our ability to stay cohesive despite these challenges. When working
together to create change, it is helpful to:
Tap our Collective Intelligence: A group can be amazingly intelligent -- smarter than its
smartest members -- IF we maintain:
*Diversity (of opinion, perspective, knowledge, experience, and resources),
*Independence in thinking (ensuring that no one is dominating others), and
*Decentralization (leveraging tacit knowledge), and
*Aggregation (mechanism for turning private judgments into collective decisions).


[The Wisdom of Crowds]

This is part one of an excellent article on organizations and how they can function. Look for part two tomorrow.

Essential Elements of High Quality Montessori Education

Members of the Montessori Forward List serve group have recently been sharing thoughts and ideas about just what are the essential elements of high quality Montessori education. We would like to thank Marci Martindale from CT for sharing a document on Essential Standards. (The CT version can be found at Montessori Foward under the resources tab).

The original, from which the Montessori Schools of CT. worked, was chaired by Betsy Coe in collaboration, and agreement, with AMS, AMS, NAMTA, MEPI, and the Southwestern Training Center. Does anyone know when it was completed?

In condensed form, here it is:

• A Montessori credentialed teacher in every classroom
• A Montessori credentialed administrator
• The full compliment of Montessori materials
• A 2-3 hour uninterrupted work cycle
• Multi-age grouping with an, ideally, 3 year age span
• A school that, ideally, starts at the Early Childhood level
• Assessments that are congruent with best Montessori practice
• All staff participate in ongoing professional development

In the current public policy clamor for accountability, many of these Montessori Essential Elements components are required of all early childhood education programs, albeit without the Montessori philosophy behind them.

Most state QRIS and all proposed federal and state initiatives and proposed legislation have a teacher education requirement as a measure of quality. The requirement of a bachelor's degree in early childhood is more and more becoming the norm. Teachers have to register through the Career Lattice and/or Professional Registry which gives them a rating based on education level, years of experience, and professional development (often state course mandated). These scores are counted towards a QRIS rating.

All state QRIS and most federal, state and city initiatives and proposed legislation have requirements for program administrators.

All state QRIS and most federal and state initiatives and proposed legislation have requirements that curriculum align with Early Learning Standards, and have specific materials in the ECE classroom.

All state QRIS have specific assessment tools to determine quality in the environment, of the staff, and program components such as parent communications, cultural diversity and working with special needs students.

We all know the emphasis being placed on early childhood education through Universal Pre-K, Pre-School for all, and many other initiatives and grants. A recent Gallup poll (June 13, 2014) determined that 65% of those polled support passing new legislation providing access to high quality pre-school to every child in America.

These are initiatives that are not going away. Accountability is not going away. More and more states are mandating accountability through QRIS and publishing rating results to the public. Public funds are being made available to all levels of families for their children to attend pre-school.

As a Montessori community, shouldn't it be up to us to define what quality Montessori education looks like? We need to have our teacher credentials recognized as high quality and not simply equal to a CDA. We need to define what materials are in our classrooms and have a rationale so that we can educate parents, decision makers, policy implementer s and policy  makers. We need to support multi-age groupings at a ratio and maximum group size that we know benefits children. We need to "translate" what we do so that when our classrooms and programs are rated, it will be understood why we do what we do. The Montessori ECE curriculum should be recognized as high quality in every state.

We can move this discussion forward. We can invite our colleagues from across the country to join in (there are currently 22 state groups with no voice on this website). Let's agree that we can talk about our similarities and our differences with grace and courtesy. But let's start the conversation. Comment here or better yet, join in the Montessori Forward List serve.

Montessori Forward