Giving Compass' Take:

 • Matt Barnum, writing for Chalkbeat, interviews Mira Debs, Director of Yale’s education studies program, about how Montessori schools fit within the movement of school choice. 

• Debs discusses the importance of Montessori schools' impact on broader community ecosystems. Are choice and charter schools taking the same considerations? What is different about the Montessori model?

• Read more about how early education should adopt core ideas from Montessori schools. 

Montessori education is about to get a significant jumpstart in the form of $1 billion from Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest man in the world.

That means the release of a new book on Montessori is well timed. In it, Mira Debs — now the director of Yale’s education studies program — traces the history of Montessori education and describes the experiences of families and educators at two Montessori magnet schools in Hartford, Connecticut.

Montessori can both contribute to and ameliorate school segregation, she points out in “Diverse Families, Desirable Schools” — and the programs offer a vivid example of how affluent families are able to prioritize finding a “good fit” school, while low-income families struggle to just find a decent option.

“Montessori’s appeal among a wide range of families and its offer of an individualized learning experience has made it a key model for racially and economically integrated schools,” writes Debs, who helped start a public Montessori school in New Haven, Connecticut.

But, she warns, Montessori is “particularly vulnerable, both historically and today, to being diverted to serve predominantly middle-class and white students.”

Chalkbeat spoke with Debs about how Montessori fits into the school choice ecosystem, why some parents are wary of the approach, and whether she’s optimistic about Jeff Bezos’ ambition.

Read the full article about montessori schools by Matt Barnum at Chalkbeat.