Identifying priorities for success in the Montessori Middle School

Montessori Life, Summer 2003 by Celeste, Natalie, DeAubrey, Dora, Freilino, Michael, McDurham, Robin, Et al

SECONDARY STORIES

To care for others, to grow personally, to explore and appreciate life, to live by principles-adolescents in Montessori middle schools are expected to live out their potential as individuals and responsible stewards in the universe.

The Montessori middle school is organized to facilitate adolescents' development to become whole people. Montessori middle-school education cannot settle for society's standard of test scores as the primary measure of success. With expectations raised, Montessori middle-school teachers, parents, and students benefit from a clarification of the elements of success and a consistent review of whether those elements are exhibited practically in the classroom. Teachers, administrators, parents, and even students need to know objectively that the Montessori middle school is working, that there is agreement as to the criteria for success.

But do we Montessorians agree on these criteria? And then how do we gauge attainment of success? We broadly define the priorities for success, but there is much room for ambiguity, especially if teachers, parents, and students are not communicating their ideas of what success looks like to them. The perceptions of success may be skewed.

Our research project defined five categories-achievement, self-discipline, personal integrity, responsible citizenship, and enjoyment of work-for achieving success in the middle-school classroom. Students, parents, and teachers-the three critical partners for creating and maintaining an "optimal learning environment" (Coe, 1988, p. 4)--prioritized these categories and declared the degree of their presence in the classroom. In addition, the same respondents ranked these categories. Our hope was that such research would prompt discussion about what success looks like in Montessori communities, thereby bridging the expectations and perceptions of parents, teachers, and students. Also, we hoped that periodic self-reviews would provide a framework to see whether actions were consistent with values.

Success in Adolescent Education

Adolescents thrive in an environment that academically challenges them and gives them opportunity to perform meaningful work (Crain, 2000; Elkind, 1998). Maria Montessori observed that adolescents desire opportunities to contribute to a greater community: "[Education] must aim at improving the individual in order to improve society" (1997, p. 59). Montessori further noted that it is essential for the adolescent to develop fully as a person living in the real world, not merely as an intellectual, that adolescents grow into people with both heads and hands. Traditionally, educators dialog about these issues and determine students to be successful when they are well rounded and capable of competing in the marketplace (Mooney, 2002). However, educators do not agree on what it means to be well rounded or capable. In essence, educators have had difficulty pinpointing priorities of success. Even the American Montessori Society has sought to define "authentic" outcomes "which indicate whether the child's development is headed the way Montessori intended" (Rambusch & Stoops, 1992, p. 44). This document considers students from all levels, toddler through middle school, and explains nine descriptors for which observers can detect outcomes in Montessori students.

Although no formal research has been conducted to determine the foundation for self-discipline, Molly O'Shaughnessy (1998) believes that it evolves in the child who has feelings of love, security, and appreciation. These feelings begin to form during the first years of life, so assumptions can be made about children who do not have self-discipline, and why. O'Shaughnessy further suggests that a spiritual awareness be taught and practiced throughout children's lives. She states that mindfulness, or living consciously, contributes to self-discipline.

Additional research surveyed through ERIC revealed countless studies focused on predictors of success-socioeconomic status, parental involvement, classroom size-and theories correlating personality traits with academic success. For example, Anderman and Midgley (1997) emphasized the need for teachers to create learning environments which promote motivation of all students in order to achieve the goal of academic progress.

Through our review of literature, we noted that no study thus far has focused exclusively on the success of middleschool students by comparing the expectations and perceptions of parents, students, and teachers.

Our Research Project

This research project, conducted in the spring of 2002, surveyed students, parents, and teachers in public, private, and charter schools. Approximately 450 surveys were sent and 265 (59%) were returned. See Table 1 for distribution results.

This survey consisted of 21 descriptors, grouped under 5 categories: achievement, personal integrity, selfdiscipline, responsible citizenship, and enjoyment of work.

Respondents first ranked the importance of these descriptors as very, somewhat, or not at all.