Letter to Editor: School to Drop Montessori Classes?

— from the MAPS Coalition (Montessori Advocates for Public Schools) —

If you haven’t heard, the public elementary school is planning to phase out its Montessori program — effective immediately. That means they will not let any of our island’s first graders into the program for next year (or, if the program is discontinued, for any future year). This is a successful 15-year program, which is so popular that it often turns applicants away.

The Montessori Advocacy for Public Schools coalition (MAPS) has formed in the past few weeks (since this news was quietly announced to a few select parents and stakeholders). We have been working to gain clarity and ensure that our voices are heard before a final decision is made about the educational options available to our island’s children. Please sign our petition via our website listed at bottom.

The school board meets this Thursday evening, May 24, and we would love to see you there. Here are the details for the school board meeting:

When: Thursday, May 24 at 5:30 p.m.
Where: Orcas Island Public School Library

You may not have children, you may homeschool, you may never want your own child to go through the Montessori program…but we’re guessing that you want strong and diverse educational choices available in this community. It’s good for children, it’s good for our property values, and it showcases what’s possible for public education in rural communities like ours.

• Montessori has been proven to work in our nation’s public schools. Here is a brief summary of the Riley Institute’s landmark, four-year study of Montessori education in South Carolina’s public schools. The study was finalized in January 2018, so it is extremely timely:
• When compared to non-Montessori public school students across South Carolina, Montessori students were more likely to have met or exceeded the state standards in each of the four subjects measured.
• After matching Montessori students to demographically similar non-Montessori students and controlling for student demographics and previous test scores, researchers found that Montessori students scored significantly higher on ELA state standardized tests than non-Montessori students across all three years of the analysis. There was also a significant Montessori advantage in math and social studies in two of the three years.
• Montessori students were significantly less likely than similar non-Montessori students to have had a disciplinary incident during the school year.
• Nearly all educators that participated in the study reported loving or liking their job as a Montessori teacher (98%). This is substantially higher than the 89% of South Carolina educators on the 2015 Report Card Teacher Survey who strongly agreed or agreed that they were satisfied with their current working conditions (EOC, 2016).

(Here’s the link to the Riley Institute study, if you’d like to learn more.)

Our goal is to have the School Board request that the Elementary Principal, Lorena Stankevich, and Superintendent Eric Webb, wait one more year before making a final decision regarding the future of Montessori education at Orcas Island Elementary.

In that year, the Coalition hopes to work with the school district to assess our children’s and community’s needs, the school’s unique situation, and to determine whether and how the Montessori model can be sustained in the elementary school.

If you know someone that would be interested in voicing their support for Montessori education in our public school, please forward this link.

We would love to show the OISD School Board that community comes first and that our community cares deeply about this issue.

Please go to WWW.ORCASMAPS.ORG to sign the petition. Come and show your support for public Montessori this Thursday, May 24th from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the Orcas Island Public School Library.

Montessori Advocates for Public Schools Lead Organizers: Georgette Wong, Lili DeHaan, Jeni Barcellos, Dana Thompson-Carver