The International Montessori Council School Accreditation Program Handbook
The Mission of the International Montessori Council The mission of the IMC is to nurture, connect and inspire the international Montessori community. The International Montessori Council (IMC) is a global community of Montessori schools, teacher education programs, school administrators, educators, trustees, parent leaders, and friends of the Montessori movement. Members of the International Montessori Council are dedicated to enriching the lives of children and adults through Montessori education by promoting Dr. Maria Montessori s insights into the human potential to the general public. The International Montessori Council is a non-profit, non-governmental educational organization with members across the United States and a growing number of other countries around the world. Its members represent a diverse constituency of school owners and heads of schools, teachers, Montessori teacher educators, educational consultants, psychologists, school support staff members, volunteers, students, retirees and others associated with the operation of Montessori schools. The International Montessori Council is an international organization that offers accreditation to the entire community of Montessori schools. The International Montessori Council defines a Montessori school as: An educational institution that provides an educational program identified as being Montessori based and that is, in fact consistent, in its practice with the characteristics commonly identified as defining an authentic Montessori program. The program utilizes trained Montessori teachers and other human resources, along with the resources of the natural surroundings and local community to facilitate each student's intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual growth. Services of the International Montessori Council include: educational programs and seminars; accreditation services; networking; monitoring of legislation at the national and state levels; Montessori Leadership Magazine and public relations services. 3
Purpose of the IMC School Accreditation Program The primary purpose of the International Montessori Council school accreditation program is to educate administrators and trustees of Montessori schools in the Best Practices basic to the development and leadership of Montessori schools. Schools that are authentically Montessori in their practice are effective in their work with children and are worthy of public trust and confidence. The Best Practices place particular emphasis on the administration of key aspects of school operation, particularly those related to the quality and integrity of the school s educational program and the health and safety of students and staff. The standards establish guidelines for policies, procedures, and practices. The school is responsible for ongoing implementation of those policies, which are consistent with Best Practices. A second purpose of the International Montessori Council School Accreditation Program is to provide the public with information, which will assist in the selection of schools that meet recognized standards of excellence in Montessori educational practice. While standards focus on educational practices, accreditation is not a guarantee that the individual student will meet specific educational objectives, nor can it guarantee that no injury or harm will occur. Accreditation does, however, indicate to the public that the school has voluntarily invited its practices to be compared with the standards of Best Practice established by leaders in the international Montessori school accreditation community. At least once every five years, an outside team of Montessori school professionals trained in the International Montessori Council School Accreditation Program visits the school to verify compliance with the standards. Unlike inspections by governmental licensing bodies, International Montessori Council School Accreditation is voluntary. The International Montessori Council does not have the authority to close or otherwise penalize an entity not meeting its accreditation criteria, except for the removal of the accreditation status. Licensing focuses on the enforcement of minimum standards; accreditation focuses on education and evaluation of a school s operation, using criteria and standards that will normally go beyond the minimum requirements of governmental regulation. International Montessori Council school accreditation standards identify practices considered basic to the creation and leadership of an authentic and effective Montessori school. They do not, however, require all Montessori schools to look alike. The International Montessori Council s school accreditation program has been designed to serve a broad range of programs: schools that are private/independent and those that are public/state sponsored; schools that are large and small; schools that are proprietary and those that are run as not-for-profit organizations; those that offer elementary and/or secondary programs; and those that serve primarily early childhood students. Each school addresses, in its own way, the principles of Best Practice identified by the standards. 4
The International Montessori Council school accreditation protocol is designed to allow for the tremendous diversity among Montessori schools around the world. It is quite different from a compliance model of accreditation, where accreditation as a recognized member of a particular Montessori organization requires a school to follow that association s guidelines for teacher qualifications, curricula, etc. The International Montessori Council understands and respects the integrity of that approach. IMC s approach, however, is based on a different perspective, while still maintaining a sound pedagogical philosophy. The International Montessori Council School Accreditation Program is based on the principle that an accredited school must be worthy of public trust, rather than requiring that it meet the standards of one model of Montessori education. The essential issue, in addition to the question of whether a school is worthy of trust is whether a school representing itself as a Montessori school actually follows the Best Practices of an authentic Montessori school. ( Worthy of Trust meaning: Is the school clear in what it says it offers? Does it actually do what it says? Is it operated in a sound, stable, manner that deserves public confidence?) Dr. Nancy McCormick Rambush and Dr. John Stoops in their work The Authentic Montessori School (1992 Middle States Association and American Montessori Society) identified six basic areas that have served for some time as a basic definition of those essential characteristics. The International Montessori Council School Accreditation Program incorporates the essence of those principles. We believe that they allow for tremendous diversity, while speaking to the central issue of what one should expect to find in a responsible school that wishes to represent itself as being a Montessori program. 5
Six Qualities of Authentic Montessori Quality 1 The Montessori Learning Environment A Child-Centered Environment. The focus of activity in the Montessori setting is on children s learning, not on the teachers teaching. These should be a very limited number of whole group lessons, and these appropriate to the particular children s levels of development. A Responsive, Preparing, Adaptive Environment. An environment responsive to children s emergent needs is one proportioned to their interests, abilities, and potential. It is both prepared in advance of the children s entry into it. And preparing in that it s responsiveness to children's need and evolving child interest as well as changing circumstance is ongoing. Individually Construed Competence. Within a Montessori setting, each child strives to realize his or her fullest potential in a socialized context. Quality 2 First hand Experience with Materials. Children learn by acting on their environments. They need materials with which to interact. At whatever developmental level the particular child, there should be available materials to interact with as well as models of relationships which Montessori characterized as materialized abstractions. Many of these are embodied in other ways. Spontaneous Activity. Children spontaneously seek growth and development because it is in their nature to do so. The Montessori environment seeks to provide a setting in which children can epiphanize their true emergent selves. Active Learning Methods. The Montessori environment is one in which children pursue their learning intentions themselves. They initiate their work and persist in it until they have completed it to their respective criteria of completion. Self-Directed Activity (Auto-Education). The child constructs his or her own intelligence, choosing his or her activity, fueled by the need to be competent. The child constructs his or her own morality, through social interaction with others. Liberty within Limits. The activity engaged in by the particular child in an environment, characterized by liberty within limits, rests on the child s right to do what is normally and appropriately dictated by the particular culture and by the developmental level of the child. 6
Intrinsic Motivations. The motive force for learning in a Montessori environment comes from within the individual child. This drive toward competence is fueled by the child s curiosity and interest. Thus is the child s self-initiated activity considered its own reward. Quality 3 The Montessori Learning Relationships Mixed Age (Family) Grouping. In order to respond to the variety and unevenness of individual children s developmental needs (and as a reflection of Montessori s developmental schemata), classes typically group children across a three year age span. Social Setting as a Community. The social setting is somewhat like that of an extended family. The emergent skills of individual children are harnessed for the good of the whole group. Children routinely demonstrate newly achieved competencies to one another. Cooperation, Collaboration, Not Competition. Children are encouraged to support one another in their efforts at mastery. The life of the group is the context in which individual activity is seen. By having children do the same thing at different times, and different things at the same time, invidious comparisons between children are avoided. Montessori s developmental focus implies that all children will, over time, master the social system and the curriculum. Quality 4 The Montessori Spirituality The Child as a Spiritual Being. Montessori saw beyond a purely materialistic view of the organism to the child as a spiritual embryo developing according to a definite plan. Quality 5 What the Montessori Teacher Is Authoritative. The teacher is firm at the edges and empathetic at the center, the kind of adult who responds empathically to children s feelings, while firmly establishing limits for the group. This teacher is peculiarly America (Rambusch 1962). Observer. The teacher is capable of inferring the children s intentions through observations. Resource/Consultant. The teacher is the source to whom children may turn to help in acquiring knowledge and the dispositions favoring its acquisition. Model. The teacher embodies the behaviors, disposition favoring its acquisition. Quality 6 What the Montessori Teacher Does Respectfully Engage with Learner. The teacher is mindful of her awesome responsibility in facilitating the cognitive and oral development of those in her charge. She sees the responsibility in terms of the individual children s needs for optimal development and of the need to create an intentional community. 7
Able to Facilitate Match between Learning and Knowledge. The teacher knows the rightest: response to the individual learner s need at whatever point the learner is, in his or her acquisition of new knowledge Environmental Designer/Organizer/Preparer. The teacher can organize the appropriate social and cognitive environment for children at different levels of development, refracting through the curriculum, the expectations of the culture. Code of Ethics and Principles of Good Practice 8