Montessori Public Advocacy 23–24
By Vyju Kadambi and Denise Monnier
QIS integration, licensure in North Carolina, UPK, and more
As this article goes to press, we’re looking back on our annual Montessori Public Policy Advocacy Conference (see sidebar) and reflecting on the achievements of MPPI staff and state advocates over the past year. What follows is just a sampling of the vast amount of work currently underway to provide universal access to Montessori education.
This past January, after nearly two years of conversations and collaboration, MPPI and the BUILD Initiative co-published a paper (Broadening Policy for Mixed Delivery: Incorporating Montessori Programs in State Quality Improvement Systems)providing information and suggestions on how states can recognize high quality Montessori programs within their Quality Improvement Systems (QIS), workforce registries, and childcare licensing. The BUILD Initiative helps state leaders create policies, infrastructure, and connections across agencies and organizations to advance comprehensive, high-quality, and equitable programs, services, and supports for young children, their families, and communities. They help leaders think and act systemically to address disparities and expand their networks to enhance their capacity to take action. BUILD engages in all of these supports in order to help build equitable early childhood systems.
MPPI established a relationship with BUILD’s Early Care and Education, Quality Improvement Initiatives Director, Deb Mathias, by attending their annual conference, and inviting her to speak at our 2018 conference. We intermittently engaged in conversations about challenges Montessori programs faced with state QIS’s, which eventually resulted in the proposal of a co-published paper.
MPPI brought the perspective of challenges that Montessori schools face within these state policies and Montessori inclusive policies that were already in place. Our BUILD collaborator brought her extensive knowledge of the broader Early Childhood Education community, and a strong sense of what would speak to QIS policy makers. Over the course of several more months, the report came to life. The paper was published and accompanied by a webinar hosted by BUILD and moderated by MPPI, with panelists from three states that MPPI and our state advocates have worked with extensively to establish Montessori friendly QIS policies. The webinar drew nearly 500 registrants representing 46 states and has since been watched by many more. MPPI and our state advocacy leads have engaged in many productive conversations since the release of the paper and webinar.
Our state advocates have also been hard at work. Montessori advocates in North Carolina are deep in the process of advocating for a pathway to state teacher licensure for Montessori credentialed teachers. Advocates from Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, including parents, school administrators and Montessori Association of North Carolina representatives have been pooling their resources, connections, and talents to attain this goal. The group was inspired by the success in Maryland and the proposed legislation in Michigan. Advocates reviewed the history of previous work on this issue, considered their options, and started reaching out to other parent organizations, advocates, lobbyists, and legislators to find a way to get either a stand-alone bill or get language added as an amendment to and existing bill.
The North Carolina advocates put together a one-page information document about Montessori teacher preparation and positive effects a pathway for those teachers to obtain state teaching licenses would have on North Carolina public Montessori schools. MPPI assisted with editing and suggestions for this document and also provided a system for the group to create a call to action for North Carolina Montessori advocates, schools, parents, and teachers to contact their legislators and provided them template wording for the outreach.
Numerous developments unfolded as a result of the collective endeavors of the group. While an independent bill was introduced, regrettably, it failed to progress beyond its initial stages. On a brighter note, a representative successfully incorporated language recognizing credentials into the house budget proposal. Despite numerous outreach efforts directed towards senators, the provisions for Montessori education were absent from the senate budget appropriations bill. This outcome was influenced by the bill’s heavy alignment with party-specific agendas, aimed at swift approval. While the budget approval is still pending, we remain optimistic for the inclusion of Montessori-related language. Regardless of its incorporation, the advocacy efforts fostered valuable connections and relationships. These newfound alliances have galvanized the advocates, fueling their determination to propose further legislation in the forthcoming legislative session.
A prominent subject in the realm of early childhood education is Universal Preschool, or UPK. Not too long ago, only a handful of states had truly universal preschool, which entails publicly funded preschool programs accessible to the majority of, if not all, 3 and 4-year-olds. The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) defines a program as achieving universal preschool status when 70 percent of 4-year-olds are enrolled. Notably, during the 2019-2020 academic year, Florida, Oklahoma, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Washington DC fulfilled this criterion.
Numerous other states are in the process of enacting UPK policies. These states include Georgia, New Jersey, Colorado, California, Illinois, Alabama, New York, and Hawaii, with more possibly on the horizon.
One state moving forward with UPK is Maryland, which also has a legislated pathway to state teacher licensure for Montessori credentialed teachers, as well as childcare licensing accommodations for Maryland validated Montessori schools to have larger group sizes and adult child ratios in order to preserve those high-quality Montessori classroom environments.
Maryland passed a huge education initiative in 2021 which included funding and parameters for universal preschool. The requirements for providers would have made it difficult for both public and private Montessori schools to participate. Montessori advocates from the Montessori Schools of Maryland worked with a legislator and other early childhood organizations to advocate for an amendment allowing Montessori classrooms participating in the UPK program to have larger class sizes and adult child ratios and for individuals with a bachelor’s degree and Montessori credential to qualify as lead teachers. The amendment was passed in March of 2023.
Vyju Kadambi and Denise Monnier
Vyju Kadambi is the Advocacy Associate for the Montessori Public Policy Initiative
Denise Monnier is the Director of State Advocacy for the Montessori Public Policy Initiative.