For context, my daughter is in a Montessori school in the United States. My wife was on the board of the school for a few years. We did a bunch of research before enrolling her in the school she attends.
The school is absolutely regulated by the state department of education. In order to operate as any kind of private school, they have to meet certain requirements and agree to oversight by the state. While I’m sure the details vary by state, and I’m only familiar with the requirements in my state, I think is probably pretty common across all 50 states.
For the Montessori aspect, yes, there are a bunch of “Montessori” schools that don’t really follow Montessori principles (at least there are in my area.) If you want to find a school that does actually implement Montessori principles, you have to do research (looking for membership in an association like the American Montessori Society is a good first-pass filter) and interview the school. There’s no substitute for due diligence for this.
For the Montessori aspect, yes, there are a bunch of “Montessori” schools that don’t really follow Montessori principles (at least there are in my area.) If you want to find a school that does actually implement Montessori principles, you have to do research (looking for membership in an association like the American Montessori Society is a good first-pass filter) and interview the school. There’s no substitute for due diligence for this.
My wife, a Montessori preschool teacher for 30 years, calls these unaccredited schools Monte-sort-of.
Appreciate these comments! My wife and I just started researching Montessori schools in our area (socal). Didn’t know about the AMS, will absolutely check that. And now we know we need a rubric to measure from Montessori to Monte-sort-of :)
In my state (Maryland) there are two categories of private school. With one, there is at least some state supervision, teachers have to be certified, etc. The State Board of Education must approve these schools. A few of the private schools are in this category.
The other category is called "church exempt." Quite simply these are exempt from education regulations. They only need to show that they are operated by a church organization. A large number of the schools are in this category.
I remember looking into Montessori schools for my kids and found them to be quite expensive. On one of their web pages they attempted to justify the cost by saying that the children would have access to very nice furniture.
For every legitimate school there seems to be another which is just a cash grab.
Ours is on the lower end of private school prices for our area (around $1200/month,) but it is a non-profit. That brings its own set of challenges, but keeps costs down. Top private schools in my area are more than $3k/month, for reference.
I mean, I don't know what types of prices we're talking about, but running schools is expensive, so when you aren't government-funded you have to charge a lot.
