“Now that my son is there, I see why so many people are eager to send their children there,” Berky said. “He loves going to school. On his very first day last year, he came home and said, ‘I love Miss Felipa [Gaudet]’s kindness.’ And I hear from every parent that they are equally impressed with the other teachers.”
Given time, scores will rise
Students across New York in grades 3-8 were given a second round of math and ELA assessments during the 2010-11 that reflected more lofty expectations than in years past. In Montessori, traditional grade distinctions don’t exist, so the tests were administered at George Washington to those kids who would be between grades 3-5 in any other school in Kingston. How those students performed on the tests was significantly lower than the averages across the district, but some George Washington parents said it would be a mistake to read too much into that.
“Of course I am concerned that G.W.’s test scores were low in comparison to other schools in the district,” said Airhart. “I am equally concerned that to date, the press has not represented a fair and balanced picture of the students tested. It has also not represented test results from the past in which G.W. scored low time and time again.”
Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger, who noted that students of traditional fourth- and fifth-grade age at George Washington only had one year of Montessori before being given the tests, said he expected the numbers would rise the longer the program is in place.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I will say that I certainly would have liked to see higher numbers which were more comparable to the rest of the district,” he said last month. “That didn’t happen this year, but I do think it will be a few more years before we really see the benefits of the Montessori program at the testing level.”
Airhart agreed.
“It is easy to blame this year’s test results on the implementation of the Montessori program, it provides the perfect excuse for poor results from a school that has long trailed in standardized tests,” she said. “I firmly believe that along with the full implementation of the Montessori curriculum, we will see marked improvements in our children’s performance.”
Jason Stackhouse, the father of two children at George Washington — ages 6 and 9 — said the test results neither surprised nor concerned him.
“These tests measure progress in an entirely different curriculum and are poor tools for evaluating a student’s progress in the Montessori system, especially early in their education,” Stackhouse said. “This is a known issue; the inapplicability of standardized assessment tools to Montessori students fueled decades of debate over mainstream adoption of the model.”
Tests lack relevance
Asked if criticism of the school and its Montessori program was unfair based on the standardized test results, Stackhouse said taking any stock from the tests at all is irrelevant.
“My response has to be that fairness doesn’t enter into it,” he said. “These tests are not designed for these students, and drawing conclusions from them is an error.”
Yanoff agreed.
“I don’t even know if these standardized tests have any relevance to the Montessori education,” he said. “Most of these standardized tests are really measuring a metric that may or may not be important.”
