Mission

Expand access to quality, child-centered education through a network of public and community-based Montessori schools.

How will we accomplish this?

  1. Engage parents and community leaders to drive demand

  2. Ensure that state and local policies support Montessori

  3. Assist in implementing high-quality Montessori education

  4. Support continuous improvement for teachers and administrators

  5. Provide low-cost Montessori materials and furniture through our Practical Lifesavers program

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Engage parents and community leaders to drive demand

How can we want what we’ve never heard of? Awareness is the first key to expanding access.

Experiencing Montessori in action allows parents and community leaders to imagine how Montessori might transform their children’s lives for the better.

Our Montessori Tour and Conversation has offered 65 community leaders the opportunity to observe Montessori classes in action-- at every level from toddler through adolescence—and to learn how Montessori is helping break the link between income and achievement.

We also offer Montessori parenting workshops in communities where publicly funded or sliding-scale Montessori programs are located or in development.

Ensure that local, state and federal policies support Montessori

Montessori looks different—in some ways very different—from traditional childcare and education programs. Built on a strong understanding of child development, Montessori programs sometimes encounter regulatory barriers that stand in the way of full implementation. To make Montessori broadly accessible requires that we collaborate closely with Georgia Pre-K, Head Start, local school districts, and other government entities. Here’s how:

  • Our Ideal Learning Head Start Network brings together Head Start practitioners around the country who use Montessori and other ideal learning approaches, to engage in mutual support and shared advocacy.
  • We offer trainings for state officials working in licensing, quality rating and Georgia Pre-K to help them develop an understanding of what to look for in the Montessori programs they oversee.
  • We successfully advocated for changes to the Georgia Pre-K guidelines to make them more Montessori-friendly.
  • We partnered with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission to create a new Montessori teaching certificate, which was adopted in May 2018.

Assist in implementing high-fidelity Montessori education

Diverse children in a public Montessori elementary classroom are engrossed in collaborative work.

Recent studies have shown that Montessori education can have a significant impact on the life chances of vulnerable children, significantly reducing the achievement gap between high- and low-income children while improving the achievement of all groups.

For school districts and early learning centers that want to take advantage of the promise of Montessori education, though, it’s not easy to know where to begin. Preparing a fully implemented Montessori program requires specialized knowledge of Montessori theory and practice, as well as an understanding of how Montessori works best in a public setting.

To help public schools deliver on the full promise of Montessori for their children, Montessori Partnerships for Georgia offers step-by-step guidance for implementing new Montessori programs, including

  • Program design
  • Staffing and recruitment
  • Site design
  • Community outreach
  • Montessori materials overview and procurement
  • Professional learning
  • Operational support

We also support existing publicly-funded Montessori schools that want to strengthen their Montessori practices, providing observation visits, program assessment, and consultation support.

Support continuous improvement for teachers and administrators

Teachers hold the key to bringing the Montessori approach to life. When they are supported, inspired, and energized, their joy drives the joyful life of the class.

Montessori Partnerships for Georgia’s workshops have supported and inspired over 400 educators, and our offerings continue to grow. We provide both in-service offerings for public Montessori schools and workshops that are open to the public. See our upcoming offerings here.

We also offer a teacher coaching program, supporting teachers through monthly classroom observations and coaching meetings. We have been excited to offer this program in two districts (DeKalb County Schools and Baldwin County Schools) and look forward to expanding it further.