Because Montessori believes in individually paced academic progress, most schools do not assign letter grades or rank students within each class according to their achievement. Student progress, however, is measured in different ways, which may include:
Student Self-Evaluations: At the elementary level, students will often prepare a monthly self-evaluation of the past three months work: what they accomplished, what they enjoyed the most, what they found most difficult, and what they would like to learn in the three months ahead. When completed, they will meet with the teachers, who will review it and add their comments and observations.
Portfolios of Student Work: In many Montessori schools, two or three times a year, teachers (and at the elementary level, students) and parents go through the students completed work and make selections for their portfolios.
Student/Parent/Teacher Conferences: Once the students three-month self-evaluations are complete, parents, students, and teachers will hold a family conference two or three times a year to review their children's portfolios and self-evaluations and go through the teachers assessment of their children's progress.
Online Montessori Record Keeping: Over recent years, online record keeping software has simplified the process of recording student progress as Montessori teachers give lessons and observe their progress. Our favorite is MontessoriCompass, which was developed with the collaboration of the Montessori Foundation (
www.montessoricompass.com). It provides a record keeping, parent communication, observation recording, and progress report system used by Montessori schools around the world.
Narrative Progress Reports: In many Montessori schools, once or twice a year, teachers prepare a written narrative report discussing each student's work, social development, and mastery of fundamental skills.
At SAPMS you will receive 2 Anecdotal Narrative Observation reports and 2 Comprehensive Progress Reports along with 2 parent/teacher conferences this year. One of these conferences will be student led. You also have the opportunity to review your child's work each
Wednesday during Work Share
Wednesday. The children collect works and build a portfolio throughout the year as well. We use the above mentioned software to record our observations, lessons and create a comprehensive view of your student's year. In a Montessori classroom we closely follow the child in order to gain the greatest depth of understanding and to see the greatest outcomes possible.
