DCS Montessori Charter School

Why DCS Montessori?

• We are the only Montessori Charter School in Douglas County.
• We have been the recipient of the John Irwin School of Excellence Award for 2012, 2103 and 2014.
• In the Fall of 2014 we were listed in the November issue of 5280 Magazine as one of their top Elementary Schools in the Denver Metro area.

Why Montessori?  

That’s what Montessori is in 60 Seconds – E.Bogard

Let Trevor Eissler tell you his story in “Montessori Madness“

Making the Case for Montessori

The Montessori Elementary Environment is Different from the Early Childhood Environment…and There Are Reasons For That! – Trillium Montessori, March 1, 2022

New Research Highlights The Long-Term Benefits Of A Montessori Education – Forbes Magazine, December 2021

Montessori offers Big Lessons for Managers – Forbes Magazine, August 2016

Montessori, why not? – by Mario Valle.  “I’m a Montessori father and I’m here today to share with you the reasons why I sent my son to a Montessori school and why I’m convinced this had been the best gift I ever had done to him.  To begin, I confess that my knowledge of Montessori was almost null, and…”

How a Montessori Mindset can Transform Your Business – Forbes Magazine, December 2015

The Montessori Observer – Current News and Information

Why Kids Need to Move, Touch and Experience to Learn – March 2015

Igniting the Flame Within – Steve Hughes, PhD, LP, ABPdN is Director of the Center for Research on Developmental Education, and a board-certified pediatric neuropsychologist. He speaks about brain development, education, and parenting for organizations around the world.

The Future of Education was Invented in 1960 – From Forbes Magazine, January 2014

Investors.com: Maria Montessori Stands At The Head Of The Class – Many famous Montessori grads attribute Montessori education to their ability to “think outside the box.”

Harvard Business Review: Montessori Build Innovators – The world is a really interesting place, and one that should be explored. Can there be any better foundation for an innovator in training?

Forbes: Is Montessori the Origin of Google and Amazon? – The approach is over 100 years old but the ideas are timeless. The world is finally catching up with Maria Montessori’s insights.

Wall Street Journal: The Montessori Mafia = Ironically, the Montessori educational approach might be the surest route to joining the creative elite, which are so over-represented by the school’s alumni that one might suspect a Montessori Mafia.

Harvard Business Review: How Do Innovators Think? – The most innovative entrepreneurs were very lucky to have been raised in an atmosphere where inquisitiveness was encouraged… A number of the innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori schools, where they learned to follow their curiosity.

Science Journal: Evaluating Montessori Education – Montessori education provides better outcomes than traditional methods, according to study published in the journal Science.

Wired: Article on Google Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin – “You can’t understand Google unless you know that both Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids. In a Montessori school, you go paint because you have something to express…not because the teacher said so. This is baked into how Larry and Sergey approach problems.  They’re always asking, why should it be like that? It’s the way their brains were programmed early on.”

Will Wright, Montessori Grad and Creator of SimCity & Spore – [Kids] can become interested in pretty complex theories, like Pythagorean theory, say, by playing with blocks. It’s all about learning on your terms, rather than having a teacher explain stuff to you. And when kids discover these things on their own, what they learn sticks with them so much more.

Watch Will Wright’s TED talk here.

Performance Data
DCS Montessori, and Montessori education in general, have built a classroom model based on a 3 year cycle. That is that students spend three years in a classroom environment at a time, such as 3,  4, and 5 year olds being in our Primary classrooms, our 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders being in our Lower Elementary classrooms, and our 4th, 5th, and 6th graders being in our Upper Elementary classrooms. All educational research suggests that students struggle with transitions and so our school minimizes these transitions, but the benefits of the 3 year cycle are greater than that. Educational aspects such as peer tutoring, contiguous teacher and assistant relationships, as well as contiguous teacher knowledge of the child, create clear academic advantages to this model, too. Based on comparative means, from CSAP, NWEA’s MAPs, Body of Evidence (BOE) assessments, DRA2, STAR, and six-trait writing assessments, across its levels, DCS Montessori three year cycle has the following statistical benefits…

1st year – Growth Rate ~ 45% (around the State Avg.)

2nd year – Growth Rate ~ 58% (exceeds both State and District Avg.)

3rd year – Growth Rate ~ 70% (One of the best in the State)

Famous Montessori Alumni

Montessori parents:  Bill and Hillary Clinton; Willie Nelson; Steve Tyler, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith; Yo Yo Ma
Montessori advocates: Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Buckminster Fuller, Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Fred Rogers, Bertrand Russell, Leo Tolstoy and Alice Waters

Did you know?

Alexander Graham Bell founded two of the first Montessori schools in the U.S. and Canada.
Thomas Edison founded a Montessori school in the U.S.
Jean Piaget, noted psychologist, was head of the Swiss Montessori Society.
Woodrow Wilson created a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House for his daughter who was a Montessori teacher.