Maria Montessori at Marsh
By David Ayer with Candice Collins
Rockford, Illinois school celebrates 40+ years
Rockford, Illinois, a large city about 85 miles northwest of Chicago, is the county seat of Winnebago County, incorrectly named for the Native American people now known as the Ho-Chunk. By the time of Rockford’s founding in the 1830s, most of the Indigenous people in the area had been forcibly relocated to reservations elsewhere, although some still remain. Marsh Elementary school was founded in 1872 and named for Jason Marsh, an early European settler and a colonel in the Union army during the Civil War.
The school was renamed Maria Montessori at Marsh more than 40 years ago with the idea that there might be other Montessori schools distinguished by the name of their buildings. So far, however, Marsh remains the only one. MontessoriPublic sat down with Principal Candice Collins, in her 10th year at Marsh, to hear the story and plans for the future.
MontessoriPublic: What’s the story at Marsh?
Candice Collins: Rockford is a big school district with about 30,000 students and 41 schools, and we’re one of six “special program” schools, which include creative and performing arts, Spanish-English immersion, STEAM, a gifted academy, and IB.
But we were the first special program! 40 years ago it was one classroom in the school, and then it became a wing, and then just grew from there.
MP: What ages do you serve?
CC: For a long time it was just PK4 through 6th grade—that was how they existed for over 20 years. But parents wanted middle school. It took years and years to but now we are PK4 through 8th grade. And we’ve gotten very large. Next year I think we’ll have 653 students, which is wonderful. We’re very popular! We have wait lists that are ridiculously long.
MP: That is big—you’re in the top 5% of public Montessori schools. What’s that like?
CC: Well, it’s a wonderful problem to have. Our families are very invested and very involved in our school but because we’re so big that makes everything a challenge. We could use more parking, and we don’t have a space that fits all 653 of us with parents as well. So we do some segmented things. For example, middle school has a dance tonight and it’s just for them.
MP: How did you come to Montessori, and to Marsh?
CC: This is my 10th year here. I was hired as a PK through 3rd grade principal while 4th through 8th grades were in a different building. Then eight years ago we moved together under one roof. That’s been really amazing, to be all together. You know, if we have a four year old who’s having an issue or something we can pair him with a middle school student for mentoring. You can’t do those things if you’re not all in the same location.
MP: So PK4—do you have three-year-olds? Is there funding for that in your district? Or is four years old the main point of entry?
CC: The district funds PK3 for half days, but we’re not set up for that so we start with PK4. Those four-year-olds are here for full days which can be a little rough. Four-year-olds can be tired in September but then they settle in and they do just fine.
We do bring in older students. Whether it goes well depends on the student’s level of independence and motivation. We have a Review and Intervention plan to support struggling students. We throw everything we can at them as far as supports and give them as much time as we can to turn things around. If they do, that’s wonderful but if not they may go back to their neighborhood zone school.
Around the three-year-olds, one thing I’ve been talking about with the district is this: We send our teachers way for training to a MACTE-accredited center more than an hour away. So I’ve floated the idea of having a training center here. We have beautiful facility here and we’re doing very authentic Montessori—I think, as much as a public school can be authentic. But we don’t have the full age range and we would need that to be an accredited training center.
MP: Tell me more about how you get trained, state-licensed teachers. I know that’s a problem for everyone.
CC: The district pays for training. It’s about $8,000 for the training and then another $8,000 for housing and a stipend while they’re there, because they go for five weeks during the summer and then there are institutes during the school year. Then they sign a 36 month contract saying if they leave within that time they will pay it back. But it’s still very difficult, say, for a single person with children or even just a dog to be away for that long. So in terms of equity and inclusion we’re picking from small group of people who can do that training. So we would really like to explore other options.
MP: And you have middle school now. What do you do for adolescent training?
CC: That’s even more difficult because the training is in Ohio. We send teachers there but it can be very far away from home. I will have a lot of applicants for a job, because a lot of people hear good things about our school and they’re interested in Montessori, but I have to call and say, “this is the training do you still want to interview?” Because they need to know up front.
MP: And this is taking state licensed teachers and getting them trained?
CC: Essentially, yes, but we’re also working with an advocacy group here in Illinois that’s trying to get a pathway for licensure for Montessori trained. But all of our teachers are state licensed. For some, though, they have their first summer of training and then go straight into the classroom. Or they are getting EL I and EL II certification and they’ve only had EL I but they’re going right into an upper elementary classroom. So they may need extra support.
MP: What about you? What’s your Montessori story?
CC: This is my 24th year here in Rockford. I started out as a traditional teacher and then went back and got my administrator’s certificate. Back then you just kind of interviewed with a panel and they placed you where they thought you would be good. So when they placed me at Montessori I really had no idea what that was. I knew we were lottery and that’s about all.
So I read and read, and spent a lot of time in classrooms at all grade levels. Then during COVID the training center shut down but we still needed teachers so we used an online, non-accredited training. We had to let a teacher go and she was going to have to pay that money back unless I could find a new adult learner, so that adult learner became me.
MP: And did you have that “falling in love” experience so many people have?
CC: Remember, I was just in the PK-3rd at the beginning and I just remember thinking, “This place is so darn quiet! Like where are the children?” The children were working and self-directed at the age of four, which was crazy to me, but there they were! And the classrooms were organized in such a way four-year-olds were doing practical life at the very beginning and they’re just constantly working. And then the older kids are getting the presentations and the little ones are watching so they’re learning too.
Then when we moved together I started watching upper elementary and middle school and observing how they work and how their classrooms are much more social but that learning was still happening.
I’m used to it now. But when I hear when people come to tour our building—I have a state senator coming next Wednesday—“calm” is the word I hear. The children are calm and settled and it’s because they’re engaged in their curriculum. It’s the curriculum, it’s the methods, it’s the independence, it’s the freedom to not have a teacher tell you, “Open your book to page 12…”
MP: So you feel that has an impact on learning?
CC: Oh for sure, absolutely. And I think our teachers, through their training and their way of thinking, they’re more able to be constantly adapting.
Here’s an example: We had a student in second grade getting off the school bus in the morning just very angry. He was disruptive in our community gathering every single morning, and he could ruin the gathering because of his mood. And his teacher was able to say, OK, then let’s move that gathering. Let’s change this to adapt to his needs, and so for that entire school year and until he left they came in the classroom and they went right to work. No talking, it was just everybody went to work and it was the calmest environment and that worked so well for him. And they just did that community a little later in the day.
I never saw that in traditional school. It was, “No, this is what we’re doing and this what you’re going to do.” I see it when I see teachers inviting kids to presentation and other kids looking on and leaving their work spot to watch and there’s just a freedom here that is wonderful.
MP: So—and this is something I always wonder about successful public Montessori programs—the kids love it, your teachers love it, parents love it, sounds like the state senators love it, you have a giant waiting list—Why is it just this one school? Why isn’t the school board saying, “We have to do this at every school in the district!”
CC: Well, if I’m being very honest—we are just one school in a big district. Within the past month I was rounding (a one-on-one conversation) with my superintendent and I think maybe he didn’t know the length of the waitlists until I mentioned it. So with that and some other things that have happened, conversations about maybe looking for another site are starting to happen.
MP: But districts are big, and they have a lot going on.
CC: Exactly. And we can kind of fly under the radar, even with 600 kids. And we don’t have someone at the district dedicated to Montessori, to help us with professional development and curriculum.
MP: Like they do in districts with more Montessori schools, such as Milwaukee or Tulsa.
CC: What’s happening in Tulsa?
MP: Well, the story there is that they opened one program, and families liked it, and so they opened another one, and that went well, so they opened a third. So maybe that could happen here.
CC: That would be great!
MP: To people who are thinking about opening or growing a public Montessori program, what would you tell them, from your ten years of experience?
CC: Well, one thing is that it took eight years for us to complete our expansion to 8th grade, but we’re really proud of what we’ve done, so stick with it. It can take time.
Then I would also highlight the importance of getting good training and doing really authentic Montessori. A lot of people don’t know that the name isn’t trademarked and all that. So it’s important to have a clear mission that has real meaning and is guided in a way you can uphold. Our mission is to offer a world class Montessori education. But what that means is we want children to be learning, and self-actualized, and part of a community and we really feel that Montessori is a great way to do that for children and families.
David Ayer and Candice Collins
Candice Collins is the Principal at Maria Montessori at Marsh in Rockford, Illinois.