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Montessori preschool in the United States
The Impact of Montessori Preschools on U.S. Preschoolers
This IES-funded collaboration with AIR has about 600 children enrolled, with a third in public Montessori that are in our study, and the rest (a lottery-controlled comparison group) in other programs.
Children's Storybook Preferences
Children's Storybook Preferences
Children Prefer Familiar Fantasy, but not Anthropomorphism, in Their Storybooks
Seeking Racial and Ethnic Parity in Preschool Outcomes
Seeking Racial and Ethnic Parity in Preschool Outcomes: An Exploratory Study of Public Montessori Schools vs. Business-as-Usual Schools
Montessori education may create an environment that is more conducive to racial and ethnic parity than other school environments.
Montessori Education Elevates and Equalizes Child Outcomes:
Montessori Education Elevates and Equalizes Child Outcomes:
This mixed methods study proposed that the Montessori approach shares closer theoretical alignment with the principles of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy than traditional or "no excuses" educational models.
Why the Time is Ripe for an Education Revolution
Why the Time is Ripe for an Education Revolution
This article reviews that science and the origins of the common instructional model, including three modifications intended to make it work better (grades, age-graded classrooms, and high-stakes testing) yet which time has shown are problematic.

News & Announcements

  • Upcoming

    AERA conference (American Educational Research Association) in Denver, CO: April 23-27th

    Keynote at the International Montessori Congress in Merida, Mexico: May 1st-4th 2026

    Recent News

    In July 2024, Dr. Lillard was quoted in this article about Montessori education.

    In May 2024, Dr Lillard spoke at Montessori Public France in Paris,  Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha in Madrid, and the International Seminar of Neuroscience and Education Centre in Girona, Spain.

    Lee LeBoeuf successfully defended her dissertation in April and is doing research at the University of Pottsdam in Berlin prior to her August graduation.

    Abby Krissinger completed the Educational Psychology- Applied Developmental Science: M.Ed. program in UVA's School of Education and Human Development.

    Dr. Lillard was recently awarded the United States Center of Union Internationale de la Marionnette’s Nancy Staub Award for Excellence in Writing on the Art of Puppetry (for article invited to Cognitive Development), 2024! Who knew?

     

    Dr. Lillard spoke at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland on November 13!

    In January 2024, Dr. Lillard spoke at the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology Conference in Bonita Springs, Florida.

    In March 2024, Dr. Lillard spoke giving a talk at Washington and Lee University.

    In May 2024, Dr Lillard spoke at the Montessori Palau Research and Training Centre in Girona, Spain at the International Seminar of Neuroscience and Education.

    Christina Carroll successfully defended her dissertation, Teachers’ Learning Orientation Scale Development and Validation. Congratulations, Dr. Carroll!

    Dr. Lillard spoke at the University of Kansas' Montessori Research Working Group meeting on October 13.

    Silvia Guerrero Moreno, the Early Development Lab's Fall 2022 visiting scholar from Madrid, Spain, will be a professor at the Complutense University of Madrid in the School of Psychology! 

    Our lab members presented at the American Education Research Association Conference in Chicago, IL in April, 2023! See what they presented:

    Dr. Angeline Lillard presented the papers "Racial and Ethnic Parity in Preschool: Public Montessori vs. Lottery Waitlist Alternatives" and "The Preschool Learning Study: Preliminary Findings from a Survey of Montessori and Control Teachers". Christina Carroll presented the paper "Likert-scale Measures Assessing Teacher Learning Orientations: A Literature Review". Lee LeBoeuf gave talks titled "Longitudinal Analysis of Racial Disparities Using Multilevel Modeling: A Demonstration Using Suspension Data" and "Examining Racial Equity in Montessori Lesson Presentation and Mastery Rates". 

    Christina Carroll presented the poster, Openness and Teacher Beliefs Among Conventional Montessori Teachers, at the American Montessori Society Conference in Boston, MA in March 2023. Click here to see the poster!

    Abby Krissinger was accepted to the Educational Psychology- Applied Developmental Science: M.Ed. program in UVA's School of Education and Human Development to begin in June 2023!

    Lee Leboeuf was recently awarded the Max Planck LIFE fellowship!

About our Research

  • Our research concerns children's social and cognitive development with a focus on the impact of Montessori Education as a form of playful learning. 

    We are currently addressing four questions that...

    Read More

Current Projects

  • Current Projects

    Our research concerns children's social and cognitive development with a focus on the impact of Montessori Education as a form of playful learning. 

    We are currently addressing five questions that...

    Read More

Dr. Angeline S. Lillard

  • she/her

    Professor of Psychology

    Director of the Montessori Science Program

    Laboratory Director

    Not available

    Dr. Lillard is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association (Division 7), and the Association for Psychological Science. She obtained her BA in English Literature from Smith College and her PhD in Psychology from Stanford University, where she worked with John Flavell.

    Her primary research interests include Montessori education and children's play. She is currently chief Editor of Frontiers in Developmental Psychology. Her book, Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius is in its third edition and translated into several languages; it received the Cognitive Development Society Book Award.

    Contact Information

    asl2h@virginia.edu
    p: (434) 982-4750

    Websites

    Dr. Lillard's CV
    Montessori-Science.org
    Dept. of Psychology, UVA
    See also: Lab Director

Recent Publications

  • Lillard, A.S., Taggart, J., Yonas, D., & Batson-Seale, M.N. (2023). An Alternative to “No Excuses”: Considering Montessori as Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Journal of Negro Education 92(3), 301-324. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/934318.
  • Basargekar, A*., & Lillard, A. S. (2023). Motivation and Self-Determination in Montessori Education. In E. T. Ahlquist, M. Debs, M. McKenna, & A. K. Murray (Eds.), Bloomsbury Handbook of Montessori Education (pp. 261-270). Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Doebel, S., & Lillard, A. S. (2023). How does play foster development? A new executive function perspective. Developmental Review, 67, 101064. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2022.101064
  • Eisen, S. L*., Taggart, J*., & Lillard, A. S. (2023). Children prefer fantasy, but not anthropomorphism, in their storybooks. Journal of Cognition and Development, 24(1), 129-141. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2022.2144317
  • LeBoeuf, L.*, Goldstein-Greenwood, J., & Lillard, A. S. (2023a). Multilevel modeling resolves ambiguities in analyses of discipline disproportionality: A demonstration comparing Title 1 Montessori and non-Montessori schools. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2023.2186991
  • LeBoeuf, L.*, Goldstein-Greenwood, J., & Lillard, A. S. (2023b). Rates of chronic absenteeism in Montessori and non-Montessori Title 1 schools. Frontiers in Education,
  • Lillard, A. S. (2023a). Grand challenges in developmental psychology. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 1, 1069925. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdpys.2023.1069925
  • Lillard, A. S. (2023b). Why the time is ripe for an education revolution. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology, 1, 1177576. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fdpys.2023.1177576
  • Lillard, A. S., Tong, X., & Bray, P. M. (2023). Seeking Racial and Ethnic Parity in Preschool Outcomes: An Exploratory Study of Public Montessori vs. Business-as-Usual Schools. Journal of Montessori Research, 9(1), 16-36. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17161/jomr.v9i1.19540
  • Randolph, R. J., Bryson, A., Menon, L., Hernderson, D., Mauel, A. K., Michaels, S., Walls Resenstein, D. L., McPherson, W., O’Grady, R., & Lillard, A. S. (2023). Montessori education’s impact on academic and nonacademic outcomes: A systematic review. Campbell Systematic Reviews, 19(e1130), 1-82. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1330
  • Snyder, A.*, LeBoeuf, L.*, & Lillard, A. S. (2023). “My Name Is Sally Brown, and I Hate School!”: A Retrospective Study of School Liking Among Conventional and Montessori School Alumni. Psychology in the Schools, 60(3), 541-565. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22777