Testing and Assessment in the Montessori Classroom

This rundown may be helpful to new Montessori teachers and parents.

One of the beautiful things about a Montessori education is that independent schools have the freedom to teach to the child, not to the test. We can see where each student is and direct their learning to their developmental level. A solid Montessori program should have goals or benchmarks (call them what you will) for a child at the end of each year. A child should hover above or below those standards. In Montessori, because of our mixed aged environments, use of the same materials through grade school and carefully trained teachers - if a child is behind or beyond (a moderate level) where we would expect them to be - we can easily support their learning. There is no “you cannot do that because you are only 3, or only 4, etc.”

When no test scores and no ranking percentages, levels or categories are sent home, parents can feel empowered by the idea that their child is learning, and being taught, exactly what they are ready for in that moment. But, some parents feel under informed and wonder what kind of education they are paying for. We, as educators, need to provide both the freedom to teach and learn as the child is ready AND give comprehensive, trackable data.

So, the question is - how do we test to make sure our students are meeting those benchmarks? DO WE? How do we assess their learning so that we are moving a child along at a steady pace - not pushing them too hard, but not letting them coast? The answer is: in many ways, each and every day. While researching this topic, a colleague of mine told me that he came to learn the root of the word assessment stems from “to sit beside.” So prevalent in Montessori, so lost in a lot of other environments.

We now know that assessment can be done in a child-friendly way and that it is extremely valuable and absolutely necessary for a child’s progress.

Formal assessments should have structure, provide guidance , standardization and comparison to others.

Informal assessments can modify, ask questions, give instruction and make changes.

There are screeners which help us locate a child on a continuum, look at specific activities and skills and are often given by teachers. Diagnostic Assessments can tell us why a child is struggling, what specifically they are struggling with, tell us how we can help and are most often given by a specialist. Program Evaluations are given to all children or small groups. Data is gathered from across the whole school. This helps the school evaluate the program’s success and identify strengths and weaknesses.

We, as educators should of course be observing, but data driven assessments are crucial to make sure we are giving our students what they need. There are wonderful tools called “temperature takers.”

TROLL is a great temperature taker. It is actually done without the child, bases on the teacher’s observations, but is a way to methodically analyze and track what is going on.

In Kindergarten, you can use a “retelling” as a temperature taker. A teacher can see if a child can stick to the story, uses words like first, next, then and shows understanding of cause and effect.

DIBELS is a very popular assessment tool right now. It is a screener, it can be a progress monitoring tool and is easy and quick to administer and is often given by teachers.

Here are five ways we can informally assess students in the classroom to make sure they are appropriately placed and moving at a level that is *appropriate for the individual. Based on some of these observations you may want to implement an assessment like DIBELS.

(1) Daily: Each day teachers are giving one on one or small group lessons to students. In Montessori, the first lesson is always modeled by the teacher, a child is then asked to perform the entire lesson or part of it. The teacher observes without interfering to see what the child has absorbed. If the child is struggling, the teacher knows she needs to re-present the lesson and try again (depending on what it is, this would happen either immediately or the following day). If the child can move through the motions, but doesn’t get the “correct” answer, the teacher has been there to observe just went wrong. The next day, the child will be asked to perform this task again. Observation is a huge part of how we assess children. We give them a lesson, we watch to see if they get it. If they do, we move on to the next thing, if they don’t, we repeat until they master it.

(2) Monthly: Some things can only be assessed over a greater amount of time. For example, it is sometimes difficult to see reading improvement on the daily level, but on a monthly level, it becomes much more transparent. Teachers keep records of what they are working on with a child (letter sounds, beginning blends, short or long vowels), which books they are reading and what they are asking children to write about. By looking at a book we read in the beginning of the month compared to what book we are reading at the end - it is easy to see the growth (or lack of) based on those records. Also, the books we read at school are not your typical books - they are highly geared toward direct teaching and skill building, which allows us to assess skills even more easily.

(3) By Semester: Reports typically go out twice a year. These reports show what over arching skills and lessons children have received, are currently working on or have completely mastered.

(4) By Year: Teachers have benchmarks based on general developmental and academic readiness for a particular age group. We of course do not wait until May to see if a child is where they are expected to be. On-going assessment that we are doing daily (see 1) and monthly (see 2) and by semester (see 3) informs us along our way. We use our yearly benchmarks as goals to aim for. As educators, we have all gone through extensive training on how to teach young children, we don’t guess what comes next, we have a path of learning in every curriculum area that we keep your child on.

(5) By Cycle: The end of each three year cycle is a huge transition for a student. Kindergarteners move to Elementary school, third graders move to Upper Elementary and sixth graders move on to Middle School. Educators do not take those transitions lightly. By now, you can see the pattern of assessment. Though there are no “formal” tests students are asked to do - they are constantly being tested. They pass or fail the test every time we ask them to perform the lesson that we taught them. Instead of writing an F on a child’s paper though, we simply teach it again. What a thought.

*appropriate looks different for every child. Some children do need to be ever so slightly pushed in order to keep moving. Some children retreat when pushed. When a Montessori teacher is educating the “whole child” we notice qualities like this and adjust our teaching.