Measuring What Matters​

The Montessori Assessment Playbook

The Montessori Assessment Playbook is a strategy manual and collection of tools for implementing an assessment model grounded in Montessori and supporting human flourishing.

The Playbook contains 33 wide-scope assessment tools, including:

  • Essential Elements Rubric
  • Teacher, Assistant, and Executive Appraisal Instruments
  • Observing Work Engagement Forms (Primary, Elementary, and Adolescent)
  • Whole School and Teacher Reflective Practice Inventories
  • Transition Skills Checklists for Primary to Lower Elementary, Lower to Upper Elementary, and Upper Elementary to Adolescent
Montessori Assessment Playbook

Visual Thinking Strategies in Montessori Environments

What’s going on in this picture?

Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) is a powerful, Montessori-aligned practice for fostering critical thinking and deep discussions with children and adults of all ages.

Developed in the 1990s at the New York Museum of Modern Art and backed by research, VTS grew into much more than an art appreciation technique. Now used in schools, colleges and universities, science museums, the New York Times, and in many other projects, VTS begins within the simple question, “What’s going on in this picture?” and leads participants in a student-centered, open-ended discussion that emphasizes reflection, evidence, and clear communication skills.

Visual Thinking Strategies in Montessori Environments is a detailed, step-by-step guide to the technique created with Montessori in mind. Readers will learn to work guide children from three to eighteen through the facilitated discussions of images and objects—discussions that will enrich children’s thinking and writing across all areas of the curriculum.

NCMPS Tools in Transparent Classroom

NCMPS tools are now available in Transparent Classroom, the popular online Montessori record-keeping app.

Forms  live in your school’s account as Conference Reports, so they stay updated with the child’s records and create a portfolio that shows development over time.

22 Assessment Tools including

  • Primary Normalization Check
  • Elementary Adjustment Check
  • Primary and Elementary Progress Reports
  • Skills Inventories (Primary, Lower Elementary, and Upper Elementary)

10 Child Study Tools including

  • Tier I, II, and III Action Plans
  • Outcomes Meeting Forms
  • General Observation and Action Plan Observation Form

Transparent Classroom users can add the NCMPS tools to their account for a percentage adjustment to their subscription, typically $.60/student per month.

To add the tools, visit your Transparent Classroom account (or make a new one) and choose Admin > School Settings > NCMPS Tools.

Using the NCMPS Tools

Montessori Curriculum to Standards Alignment

The NCMPS Montessori Curriculum to Standards Alignment (MCSA) consists of two separate Alignments:

  • Primary (PK3–K)
  • Elementary (1st-6th Grade)

Together, they comprise 13 Albums aligning Montessori Primary and Elementary curriculum to national standards.

The MCSA is available digitally as an annual subscription and printed as wire-bound volumes.

Below, you can take a look through some pages from the Elementary Biology Album.

Essential Elements

The Essential Elements for Public Montessori is a two-page set of implementation guidelines.

The Essential Elements Implementation Rubric, a detailed articulation of the Elements, can be used independently or as part of a comprehensive Essential Elements Review.

Essential Elements for Public
Montessori

This two-page document gives essential implementation guidelines for fully implemented, sustainable public Montessori programs.

Essential Elements
Implementation Rubric

A fully-articulated rubric for evaluating schools according to the Essential Elements. The Rubric can be used independently, or as part of a contracted Essential Elements Review

Foundational Commitments for Public Montessori

The Montessori model differs from other approaches in significant ways. This document summarizes these differences and provide design commitments for a successful and sustainable public Montessori program.

Developmental Environment Rating Scale (DERS)

Measuring what matters

The DERS is a classroom assessment tool which measures child and adult behaviors, and environmental attributes, associated with developmental outcomes such as  executive function, linguistic and cultural fluency, and social fluency and emotional flexibility.

Schools use the DERS to guide observation and support continuous improvement towards outcomes that matter.

For more information, training, and licensing, visit ders-app. org→

Cheyenne Eete Kippenberger

Cheyenne Eete KippenbergerCheyenne is a Seminole and Chilean woman, advocate for Indigenous people and a former Miss Indian World. She has utilized her platform as an ambassador to advocate for environmental protections of the Florida Everglades, overturn adverse stereotypes and stigmatizations of mental health in tribal communities, encourage healing through identity and self love, and combat the negative, stereotypical narrative of Native and Indigenous people through education. Cheyenne also provides motivational speaking presentations, empowerment workshops, pageantry coaching, cultural and historical consulting, hosts and emcees, and presents on topics such as culture as prevention, identity, human trafficking, domestic violence, and much more. She strives for authenticity and to live a healthy life physically, mentally and spiritually through her culture and teachings.

Desmond Blackburn

Desmond BlackburnFacing History and Ourselves is a non-profit organization founded in 1976 to “use lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.” Today, Facing History and Ourselves is a global organization with a network of hundreds of thousands of educators reaching millions of students worldwide, providing extensive curriculum, professional development, and resources. CEO Desmond Blackburn began his public education career as a high school math teacher in Florida and rose through the state’s school system, including serving as principal at a public Montessori school, to become Superintendent of Brevard Public Schools. Blackburn has served as CEO of the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit that works to disrupt the predictability of educational inequities for systemically underserved students. He was previously Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership for the New York City Department of Education, the largest school system in the nation, before joining Facing History and Ourselves this year.