Using only studies with evidence of baseline equivalence, this review found that Montessori education had a significant positive impact on academic and nonacademic outcomes. Studies with random assignment, elementary school age level, and private Montessori schools had larger effects.
A compelling and growing body of evidence supports Montessori as an educational approach that improves students’ social, emotional, and academic outcomes while functioning as a lever for equity and educational justice.
Montessori outcomes have been particularly compelling and consistent for reading and literacy. For those who may wonder about the secret in the Montessori sauce, we can point to the fact that Montessori education has always been based on careful scientific observations of how children learn. For over a century, as mainstream educational practice and policy has vacillated between phonics-based, whole-language, and balanced literacy approaches (to name a few), Montessorians have continued to base curricular and instructional decisions on empirical evidence.
Standardized test performance in Public Montessori schools.
Here we report on this for the 10 states/regions with the most public Montessori schools (n = 195). In 3rd grade, Montessori schools were less proficient in math but more proficient in ELA. In 8th grade they were also more proficient on ELA and showed a trend to greater proficiency in math. Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students at Montessori schools were more proficient on ELA tests, and performed better or similarly on math tests, at both grade levels.
An association between Montessori education in childhood and adult wellbeing
Wellbeing, or how people think and feel about their lives, predicts important life outcomes from happiness to health to longevity. Here, 1905 adults, ages 18–81 (M = 36), filled out a large set of wellbeing scales followed by demographic information including type of school attended each year from 2 to 17. We first developed a measurement model of wellbeing using the survey data, arriving at four factors: general wellbeing, engagement, social trust, and self-confidence. Attending Montessori for at least two childhood years was associated with significantly higher adult wellbeing on all four factors. A second analysis found that the difference in wellbeing between Montessori and conventional schools existed even among the subsample that had exclusively attended private schools. A third analysis found that the more years one attended Montessori, the higher one’s wellbeing as an adult. This study suggests that attending Montessori as a child might plausibly cause higher adult wellbeing.
An alternative to "no excuses": Considering Montessori as culturally responsive pedagogy
To address inequality, philanthropists support “no excuses” schools in majority-Black low income communities. While the model has raised achievement, its practices are problematic from a social justice lens. Montessori is a highly contrasting model, and over 25% of public Montessori students are Black. Here we examine whether Montessori is a viable alternative school model for Black children. After showing the theoretical alignment between Montessori and culturally responsive pedagogy, we review studies of Montessori outcomes, then we present a new mixed-methods study of 12 adults who attended a primarily Black Montessori preschool. Their descriptions reflect that Montessori’s lived experience is as a culturally responsive pedagogy. The evidence suggests Montessori avoids the concerns raised by no excuses schools while delivering positive outcomes.
Montessori preschool elevates and equalizes child outcomes: A longitudinal study
Here we report a longitudinal study that took advantage of randomized lottery-based admission to two public Montessori magnet schools in a high-poverty American city. Montessori preschool elevated children’s outcomes in several ways. Over time the Montessori children fared better on measures of academic achievement, social understanding, and mastery orientation, and they also reported relatively more liking of scholastic tasks. They also scored higher on executive function when they were 4. In addition to elevating overall performance on these measures, Montessori preschool also equalized outcomes among subgroups that typically have unequal outcomes. This suggests that Montessori preschool has potential to elevate and equalize important outcomes, and a larger study of public Montessori preschools is warranted.
Preschool children's development in classic Montessori, supplemented Montessori, and conventional programs
To test whether outcomes vary according to fidelity of Montessori implementation, we examined preschool children enrolled in high fidelity classic Montessori programs, lower fidelity Montessori programs that supplemented the program with conventional school activities, and conventional programs. Children in Classic Montessori programs showed significantly greater school-year gains on outcome measures of executive function, reading, math, vocabulary, and social problem-solving, suggesting that high fidelity Montessori implementation is associated with better outcomes than lower fidelity Montessori programs or conventional programs.
This study examines students' academic and social scores in a Montessori school as compared with other elementary school education programs. The effectiveness of some of these elements is noted as being supported by research on human learning.
