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Happy New Year and Almost
Happy Spring from the MACTE Staff!
We are excited to share with you our vision for 2017.
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The Way Ahead... A Note from MACTE's President, Dr. Rebecca Pelton
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The Way Ahead
....A note from the President of MACTE
Before we look ahead, I would like to briefly take stock of our recent accomplishments and share with you the state of MACTE from my vantage point.
2016 was such an eventful year culminating in one of the most exciting MACTE Symposiums to date. We welcomed Dr. Herman Bounds from the United Stated Department of Education who discussed the valuable nature of outcomes with us; Ms. Kathy Minardi, a Montessori Educator and Consultant who presented an exciting and sophisticated new way of looking at our programs from a systems perspective; and Dr. Tammy Pawloski from Francis Marion University who introduced the special challenges of educating children living with poverty.
Our colleagues were so excited to engage Dr. Pawloski that we asked her to stay another hour to hear about her work preparing teachers to work with this special population. And let me share a special thank you to Kathy Minardi who I met in Oslo where we were both working at the Norsk Montessoriforbund Leadership Conference. We laughed that it took a trip to Oslo to meet someone of Kathy's credential living just across the Potomac from us.
The number of MA
CTE accredited Montessori teacher education programs continues to grow and interest is expanding, especially in our state departments of education and in the international Montessori
community. Over the
course of this year, we added two more states, Wisconsin and Montana, to state protocol agreements, and we added five new accredited teacher education programs overseas, including programs in Nigeria, Australia, Taiwan, and two in Shanghai. In general, our ranks have grown to 127 programs with 80 initial accredited Montessori teacher education program levels over my five-year tenure as president. We have fifteen initial applications and fifteen renewals as we begin 2017.
I bring your attention to the plan to add staff positions and services. For instance, consideration is being given to develo
ping a dedicated position to further state relations, which is presently being managed by existing staff with assistance from contract staff. Further, we hope to continue elaborating our on-site verifier training to include more on-site training opportunities.
The year 2016 was not without losses. We said goodbye to several of our staff who have helped with our growth and development over the past few years. As you know, Emma left us in August to start her career as a nurse working in an ICU step-down unit at the University of Virginia Medical Center. Chelsea Stobbart left us in early September to devote herself full-time to her small business, Wedding Welcomes (https://www.weddingwelcomes.com), and Cassie recently left to pursue other interests of her own. Kate's husband was making plans for a job change and a move to Charleston, South Carolina through the fall and they moved just before the Symposium as he began his position at the Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina on December 5th (charlestonharborresort.com). Kate's last day of working for MACTE was Friday, Feburary 24.
While sad, their departures will invite new energy and talents to enrich our work. As some of you know, we hired Ms. Stacy Seapy to fill Emma's shoes as Operations Manager and Katie Rustin to fill Chelsea's place as our Registrar. We also just hired two Accreditation Specialists Carolyn Pinkerton, Ph.D. and Amy Fagan, M.Ed. We welcome you to read their bios below and on our website at macte.org/macte-staff/
. Finally, we recently contracted with a HR Consultant, C
hassity Johnson, who is helping us with revising our policy manuals. Big changes but a very dynamic new group!
The MACTE Board of Directors has also had a few changes. Our board chair Gwen Harris and our board Secretary Pat Ashcraft finished out their terms in November and we have new additions of Dr. Mark Lacelle Peterson, Senior Vice President for Policy and Programs, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), Ms. Melissa Redd, Program Director for Sandhills Montessori Institute representing the Independent Affiliates, Ms. Helen Traicus, faculty Montessori Teacher's College, Toronto, Ontario, representing the Independent Affiliates. AMS will also have a new member of the MACTE Board in the coming months.
The Executive Committee consists of the new MACTE Board chair, Dr. Frank Murray, Vice Chair remains Stacey Edwards-Russo, Secretary, Ms. Teresa Noble, and Treasurer, Ms. Karen Simon. All Board members and their bios can be found on the MACTE website at
macte.org/board-of-directors/
Our future...
Hearing the suggestions and ideas of our affiliate leaders during our meeting together on December 1, 2016 we will continue to communicate our advances in the research regarding the accreditation of the Montessori Leadership credential and the EL-II stand alone credential. A taskforce has been created that will meet in the next several months.
The vision for this year has already begun to be realized with a trip to the state of Georgia and a meeting with their State Department of Education on January 18th. In this regard, continued work with South Carolina, New York, Michigan and California is underway, with the hopes of having 15 state protocol agreements by the end of the year.
We will be intensifying on-site verifier training and also include continual access to short videos for updated information regarding protocol and procedures. In addition, we will continue our efforts to
technologically innovate the process of accreditation. In 2017 we are improving our Self Study submission process with access to the MACTE's Accreditation Management Portal (AMP).
Finally, we will continue to stay ahead of the curve in the area of holistic data collection in the coming year. The information we gather will be shared on a quarterly basis with our constituency in preparation for our 2017 Research Symposium in collaboration with MPPI and MLC, Friday, December 1 and Saturday, December 2, 2017.
These are just a few of the many concrete goals MACTE has in place for moving our organization forward. We look forward to and thank you in advance for your support, contributions, participation, involvement and being a caring resource to our vision.
As always please do not hesitate to contact the office or me personally at any time.
Warmest Regards,
Rebecca
MACTE President
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Introducing MACTE's Newest Staff Members
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Kathryn (Katie) Rustin
Registrar
Katie has a B.S. in Industrial Design from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech). She is an expert in social media platforms, photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, SEO Youtube, and video editing. Prior to her work with MACTE Katie worked as a technical support representative for Altec Industries. She wrote and processed legal and bid contracts for both government and private sectors. Katie assisted in marketing strategies and social media platforms. She was responsible for corresponding with over 150 clients and internal engineers. Katie utilizes her expertise for communication with MACTE's constituency. In her spare time Katie is a Re-Fashion Designer and an author of a blog.
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Carolyn Pinkerton
Accreditation Specialist
Carolyn Pinkerton, Ph.D. comes to MACTE after a long tenure in education as an English as a Second Language teacher at multiple school sites and a support for teachers on best educational practices. Prior to her teaching experience Carolyn worked for the Core Knowledge Foundation communicating with teachers in the piloting of their programs and as a graduate teaching assistant and guest lecturer in Social Foundations of Education, Contemporary Issues in Education, Child Development and Human Development at the University of Virginia. Carolyn has her B.A. in Spanish, minor in Elementary Education, and M.S. in Education from University of Tennessee, Knoxville; M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute University, Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Virginia. Carolyn was a Fellow, receiving the UVA Faculty Senate Dissertation Award after conducting in-depth research about adult online learning communities and instructional strategies. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge regarding learning communities and we are excited to have her on our team.
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Aimee Fagan
Accreditation Specialist
Aimee is an experienced Montessorian as a graduate of the Institute of Advanced Montessori Studies with an AMS Early Childhood credential. She has been a lead Montessori teacher and taught Early Childhood and Kindergarten at the University Montessori School here in Charlottesville. She has supervised interns and planned and structured an integrated curriculum with co-teachers. Aimee is experienced in the Self-Study writing process and has a deep understanding of Montessori education. Her background in project management skills will be an asset in providing feedback to our programs. In 2015 Aimee published a book for educators that outlines our 40 sewing activities for children and contains accompanying theory and philosophy. She also maintains a blog focused on Montessori and early childhood education for both educators and parents. Aimee has a bachelors in Anthropology, from Kenyon College and her M.Ed in Curriculum & Instruction and Reading Instruction, from the University of Virginia. We welcome her to the MACTE team.
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December 2016 MACTE Board Meeting Decisions
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Barry University Montessori Teacher Education Program
(Miami, Florida) Director: Alan Koesten
Full Accreditation with Stipulations (Renewal) for a term of seven years* (FA, November 6, 2021) for its Early Childhood Montessori Teacher Education Certification Program
Barry University Montessori Teacher Education Program
(Miami, Florida) Director: Alan Koesten
Full Accreditation with Stipulations (Renewal) for a term of seven years* (FA, November 6, 2021) for its Elementary I-II Montessori Teacher Education Certification Program
Montessori Training Center of Brentwood
(Brentwood, Tennessee) Director: Rhonda McKay
Full Accreditation (Initial) for a term of seven years (IA, November 30, 2023) for its Early Childhood Montessori Teacher Certification Program
Gulf Coast Montessori Teacher Education Center
(Houston, Texas) Director: Erika Olhaver
Full Accreditation (Initial) for a term of seven years (IA, November 30, 2023) for its Elementary I-II Montessori Teacher Certification Program
Age of Montessori
(Bozeman, Montana) Director: Mary Ellen Maunz
Initial Accreditation status for its Early Childhood (IA, September 24
, 2019
) Teacher Education Certification Program to include the following Substantive Change:
Substantive Change #8, Additional Location: Thomas
Montessori Institute of North Texas
(Dallas, Texas) Director: Mary Caroline Parker
Full Accreditation (Initial) for a term of seven years (IA, November 30, 2023) for its Early Childhood Montessori Teacher Certification Program
Montessori Education Center of the Rockies
(Boulder, Colorado) Director: Merrie King
Full Accreditation status for its Elementary I (FA, September 24, 2019) Teacher Education certification Program to include the following Substantive Change #8: Additional Location at 501 Oakland Blvd., Ft. Worth, Texas 76103
Heritage House Montessori Center
(Lagos, Nigeria) Director: Adebola Atoyebi
Full Accreditation (Renewal) for a term of seven years (FA, November 10, 2023) for its Early Childhood Montessori Teacher Education Certification Program located at 6, Mudasiru Awe Street, Jibowu, Lagos, Nigeria.
Heritage House Montessori Center
(Lagos, Nigeria) Director: Adebola Atoyebi
Full Accreditation (Initial) for a term of seven years (IA, November 30, 2023) for its Infant and Toddler Montessori Teacher Certification Program
Montessori Teacher Training Institute Mercer County Community College
(Robbinsville, New Jersey) Director: Monica Shah
Full Accreditation status for its Early Childhood (IA, July 30, 2019) Teacher Education Certification Program to include the following Substantive Change: 7: Relocation of Permanent Site to Robbinsville Montessori, 2022 Washington Blvd., Robbinsville, NJ 08691.
Montessori Training Center of Minnesota
(St. Paul, Minnesota) Director: Molly O'Shaughnessy
Full Accreditation (Renewal) for a term of seven years (FA, November 10, 2023) for its Early Childhood Montessori Teacher Education Certification Program
Institute for Guided Studies
MEPI
(Camden, South Carolina) Director: Mary Helen Cline
Full Accreditation status for its Infant and Toddler (FA, May 4, 2023) Teacher Education certification Program to include the following Substantive Change #8: Additional Location at 3625 Ashley Phosphate Rd. N. Charleston, South Carolina 29418
Canadian Montessori Teacher Education Institute
(Ontario, Canada) Director: Daniel Jutras
Full Accreditation status for its Early Childhood (FA, August 08, 2017) Teacher Education certification Program to include the following Substantive Change #8: Additional Location
Heart, Mind and Soul Montessori Academy, 9200 Pie-IX boulevard Montréal-North, H1Z 4H7
Administrative Decisions
The Montessori Institute / Denver
(Denver, Colorado) Director: Judith Orion
Substantive Change 3: Addition of Co Director, Karey Lontz, Infant and Toddler Level
Centro de Entrenamiento Montessori
(Nuevo Leon, Mexico) Director: Maria Guadalupe Cerda
Substantive Change 3: Change in Director, Isela Gonzalez
Instituto Nueva Escuela
(Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico) Director: Jennyffer Otero
Substantive Change 3: Change in Director, Jennyffer Otero to Annabel Martinez
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