Montclair Elementary Pre-Primary Montessori?

[Aliyahsmommy]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the Montclair Elementary montessori half-day preschool program for three and four year olds. Was it good? Did your child learn a lot etc?

[tjsmama]

I would be interested to learn about this, too. That's right around the corner from us!

[Rose-Roget]

I don't know much about it, other than vague comments that it's a 'good' program, but this hasn't been from insiders - just word of mouth. I wrote to the principal about the elementary program. Here was his reply. Maybe there is some information you can use.

"As far as your other questions, I'll see if I can answer them. All of our Montessori teachers are AMS certified. Some are finishing that certification, as they are new in the last two years.

Our preprimary or 3-6 teachers are all veteran AMS certified teachers. In a preprimary classroom there are about 31 students. 17 kindergarten students and 14 preschool students with a teacher and two para-professionals.

As far as "teaching to the tests", the Montessori students are all expected to learn the district outcomes, just as the traditional students, but they have created ways to work within the system. For example, if students need to take a district test in a particular year and the Montessori curriculum cycle is in a place where the students have not yet been exposed to that particular topic, then the teachers make sure to give lessons in that area throughout that year prior to the assessment. Then they revisit the topic at a later time. Our teachers have had many years to create that timeline, and they are used to having to work within the public school assessment system. Montessori students score as well as traditional students, and Montclair students score well compared to the rest of the district. We have not found that one scores significantly higher in our building than the other.

In addition, we have as many special education Montessori students as we do Traditional. In a public school, all students have the same resources available to them. Also, we do have more High Ability Learners in Montessori, especially at the 4th and 5th grade level. 6-9 classrooms or Primary is made up of 1st-3rd grade students. I hope I answered all of your questions for now, but when you come to tour, I will be available to answer more. The tours I give are on Thursday mornings at 9, 10, and 11:00. Please call Deb or Karen to schedule a tour whenever you would like."


Sorry I'm not more help. Good luck!