Is Montessori education worth it? New research empowers you to make a decision

Despite having gone through teacher training and even working in teacher education for many years, I didn’t know much about Montessori until I became a mom. In teacher training we had learned some basics but nothing that really went into details or was easy to apply. A new (2023) study found¹, however, that the answer to the question “Is Montessori worth it?” is that learners educated with a Montessori approach were better in several areas then those in control groups. Does that mean you should go out and enroll your child in a Montessori school? No. But it does mean that looking into Montessori education (and how you can apply it to your learner) is worth it. First, I’ll describe the results of the study a bit more. Then I’ll discuss Montessori schools. At the end, I’ll give you some examples on how to apply Montessori ideas to your learner – whether it’s your own child at home or a student in your classroom. 

What does the study say about the effects of Montessori education?

The study_¹ is a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is done so one can see beyond just one study. Are there effects that show up again and again? That means a meta-analysis actually looked at lots of different individual studies. In this case, the analysis  compared Montessori education to other types of education, labelled for instance ‘traditional’, ‘conventional’, ‘national curriculum’ or ‘Steiner education’. It included studies from around the world, dealing with 3 to 11 year old children. So the results might not be valid for older children.

What did the meta-analysis find? Results between the studies varied, but overall, Montessori education led to better results than other types of education in the following areas¹:

• “social skills” (g=0.22)”
• “creativity” (g=0.25)”
• “motor skills” (g=0.27)” and
• “academic achievement (g=1.10)”

The g in the brackets stands for Hedges’ g. The higher the value, the stronger the effect², i.e. the more positive results for the Montessori educated children compared to children in other types of education. So while effect in the first three areas is small, there’s a big positive effect for academic achievement.

Montessori schools

Montessori schools are private schools that cost money to attend. Prices vary greatly. For instance, one school in Pittsburgh charges $6,500/year for children aged 3 to 5 (3 hours/day, 5 days a week). A school in NJ charges $11,350 for the same. While one school in New York City charges $38,800 for children aged 3 to 6 (6.5 hours/day, 5 days a week). There are usually additional fees e.g. for classroom materials ⁴ In any case, tuition is a significant monthly cost.

One way to look at it is to compare it to your salary. For instance, both Pennsylvania and New York have a minimum of 36 weeks of school a year for public schools, which I’ll use as a rough estimate⁵.

At 3 hours/day for 5 days for 36 weeks, you’d get 540 hours. At 6.5 hours/day you’d get 1170 hours. So if tuition is $6,500 and the child would be there for 540 hours, that translates to just over $12/hour, if tuition is $11,350 that translates to about $21/hour. You get the idea.

Your child would not just be away from you while attending school. But you would also need to earn the money for the tuition. Depending on how much your hourly rate is, you might end up working mostly or exclusively for tuition, which wouldn’t make it worth it at all. For instance, according to one site, the average hourly salary for public school teachers is just $21⁶.

Besides the considerations of being away from your child and having to earn money for tuition, another consideration is whether a Montessori school is the right fit for your child. Studies often deal with averages. They answer questions such as on average, does a specific educational program lead to good results? That doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for all children.

Applying Montessori ideas to your learner

Because the meta-analysis looks at many different studies, it doesn’t give answers which aspects of Montessori education are especially beneficial. But I started reading the book “The Montessori toddler”³ and it really helped me to understand better what a Montessori approach to education means. Here are some key ideas that you can apply to your learner:

Observe your learner.

Montessori is big on observing the child³. Where is s/he at? The better you know your learner, the better you can help him/her.

Give your learner specific feedback.

Tied in with that is the idea of specific feedback. Instead of just saying “Good job” Montessori encourages the big people in children’s lives to really observe and then be specific.³ For instance, you might say “You put away your blocks by yourself.”

Give your learner prepared, step-by-step materials.

Montessori education takes a skill and breaks it down. It tries to offer materials that “are challenging to master but not so difficult that they will give up”³. Materials are then offered to build up the skill step-by-step over time. Each activity is shown to the child. Then s/he can work on it. Only a certain number of activities/ toys are out and accessible at any one time. The rest is stored away. Activities/ toys are then rotated between accessible and storage³. For instance, take lacing shoes. That skill involves getting a string through small holes in a specific pattern. Very young children would start with placing rings on a stick that’s vertical (the classic stacking toy). Then putting rings on a horizontal stick. Then maybe stringing oversized beads on a thick string³. Then getting smaller or working with a lacing toy and so on.

Create an environment that helps them to do things by themselves.

Montessori education looks at the whole room. If a child or student often needs help with a specific thing, what could be done to alter the environment to make it easier for them to do it themselves³? That could, for instance, mean spill-wiping cloths at a level they can access, 

Make the environment and materials beautiful and uncluttered.

Montessori education encourages to only have a certain number of activities/toys out at any one time, making the environment uncluttered. It’s also big on making the environment and activities beautiful and attractive for the learners³. Think artwork, for example. Or wooden toys (which, additionally, help to limit exposure to harmful plastics).

Help them learn from older learners.

Children of different age groups can learn from each other, therefore Montessori encourages learning in mixed age groups³. This is not easy to apply if your child does not (yet) have any siblings or you’re teaching in a traditional classroom. For applying it to the home, you could look into group activities. For instance, some libraries offer free children’s activities that span a certain age range, such as birth to 17 months or 18 months to 6 years. In a traditional classroom setting, maybe you could do a project or field trip that has students from different grade levels working together for a limited time.

Other ressources

If you’re on Facebook, there are several groups that focus specifically on ideas and advice for implementing Montessori at home. There are also websites that offer activity lists for inspiration of activities to do with different age groups, like this one focusing on the early years.

Also, as Tara Canard describes, a lot of “Montessori activities are truly DIY creations – anything laying around the house can be repurposed for a new imaginative play”⁷ (obviously, keeping safety in mind).

References: 
1 Demangeon, A., Claudel-Valentin, S., Aubry, A. & Tazouti, Y. (2023) A meta-analysis of the effects of Montessori education on five fields of development and learning in preschool and school-age children. Contemporary Educational Psychology 73. 102182 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X2300036X

2 Statistics How to. (n.d.) Hedges' g: Definition, Formula. https://www.statisticshowto.com/hedges-g/#:~:text=What%20is%20Hedges%27%20g%3F,Cohen%27s%20d%20are%20extremely%20similar. (last checked Aug 1, 2023)

3 Davies, S. (2019). The Montessori Toddler. Workman Publishing Company (eBook)

4 Mt Lebanon Montessori. Tuition and Fees. https://mtlebanonmontessori.org/admissions/tuition-and-fees/, The Montessori Schools Flatiron. Soho https://www.themontessorischools.org/admissions-exmissions/tuition Acorn School Lebanon NJ https://www.acornschool.org/admissions/tuition-fees/(last checked August 23, 2023)

5 Peete, Josh. Superintendent Answers: “How Many Weeks in a School Year?” https://www.joshpeete.com/superintendent-answers-how-many-weeks-in-a-school-year/ (last checked August 23, 2023)

6 Ziprecruiter. Public School Teacher Salary in New Jersey. https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Public-School-Teacher-Salary--in-New-Jersey

7 Canard, T. (2023) A LIST OF 25 FUN MONTESSORI ACTIVITIES: AMAZING TODDLERS https://wildwoodsandmotherhood.com/a-list-of-25-fun-montessori-activities-amazing-toddlers/ (last checked Nov 8, 2023)