A growing body of research supports the effectiveness of Montessori education over a range of outcomes, including school readiness, academic achievement, executive function skills, and more.
Lillard’s 2017 book is a comprehensive summary of the developmental psychology underpinning the Montessori method.
This three-year study of four public Montessori schools in New Haven reduced achievement gaps across income levels and rated Montessori children higher in academic achievement, social cognition, mastery orientation, and school enjoyment. This work is the basis for an ongoing federally funded national study.
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This study of 45 public Montessori schools in South Carolina found that Montessori students met more standards and showed more growth (especially in low-income and Black sub-groups), showed more creativity, and had fewer absences, discipline events and suspensions.
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Does it Work? What the Research Says
A two-page summary of Montessori outcomes, with citations.
Annotated Bibliography
A selected bibliography of recent research
Annotated Bibliography by claim
Detailed citations for Montessori outcomes
American Educational Research Association Montessori Special Interest Group
American Montessori Society Research and Resources
Center for Montessori Studies at the University of Hartford
Dozens of studies show how Montessori supports a wide range of developmental outcomes. Download the summary here.
Montessori supports executive function skills, including self-regulation, working memory, planning, and inhibitory control. Executive functions predict positive life-long outcomes such as academic achievement, income potential, and marital satisfaction.
Montessori supports social problem solving ability, a sense of community and social justice, positive perceptions of classmates, and construcive social problem-solving.
Montessori supports self-regulation and intrinsic motivation, which correlate with academic achievement. In language arts, children in Montessori classrooms have shown strengths in decoding, letter-word identification, reading assessments, sentence structure, and writing creativity. In mathematics, children have shown higher scores in applied problem solving, understanding of math concepts, and standardized test scores.
While the Montessori approach recognizes that learning begins at birth, well before conventional schooling starts, children in Montessori preschool and kindergarten classrooms have shown strengths in traditional “school readiness” measures.
Scientific research confirms that Montessori children have an advantage not only academically, but also in social and emotional development.
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A one-page overview for stakeholders new to Montessori.
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A one-page overview of Montessori education for early childhood.
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A one-page overview of Montessori education for 1st through 6th grade.
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common questions regarding Montessori.
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Essential guidelines for fully implemented, sustainable public Montessori programs.
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a one-page timeline overview.
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Prepared Environments for Learning and Living.
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NCMPS produces a series of White Papers to provide support for Montessori implementation and program development for use with administrators, policy makers, legislators, and wherever else they can be helpful.
These papers are free to download and use with attribution to the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector.
The full 4th-6th grade age grouping maximizes the benefits of Montessori.
Fully-implemented Montessori requires a lead Montessori trained teacher and an assistant.
Landscape analysis, best practices, and model schools.
Montessori is uniquely situated to support and benefit from a push-in model of special education and ELL instruction.
Case study of a stressful situation and a Montessori response.
Appropriate compensation supports staff longevity and full implementation.
While Montessori functions best as a whole, certain elements can be abstracted.
Creative funding strategies for funding three and four-year olds.
Montessori aligns well with federal early education priorities.
Strategies and rationale for Montessori implementation in a Head Start and Early Start programs.
Language-rich Montessori environments inherently support decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension.
The last fifteen years have witnessed a surge of interest in Montessori education. This interest is evident in a rise in research on Montessori, increased mainstream press, and the opening of new Montessori schools.
As Montessori programs in public schools expand, Montessori education is becoming available to a more diverse population of American students than ever before. Students of color have a significant presence in public Montessori schools; over a quarter of students in whole-school public Montessori programs are African American. This study sought to answer the question, how effectively does Montessori instruction promote achievement for African American third grade students in reading and math, compared to similar traditional schools and other public school choice programs?