Developmental Growth Indicators

Montessori Public Works has been working to create resources to expand understanding of the benefits of public Montessori across the country for the past decade. Through this work, we noticed that many early childhood curricula use developmental progressions to clearly map how their approach supports children’s growth over time.

Deep alignment with developmental growth has always been a hallmark of the Montessori curriculum. However, that alignment has not always been easy to communicate to those outside the Montessori community. The DGIs were designed to make that invisible growth visible. As we developed this tool for administrators and policymakers, we realized it could also be highly valuable for Montessori teachers, offering a practical way to track progress, reflect on practice, and clearly articulate how everyday Montessori work supports children’s development over time.

Montessori Public Works has developed Developmental Growth Indicators (DGIs) as part of a forthcoming public Montessori Early Childhood Curriculum package. These indicators articulate the skills, behaviors, and understandings children develop in a continuous, interconnected progression over a multi-year experience in Montessori early childhood (PK-K) classrooms.

In addition to helping administrators understand how the Montessori approach fosters measurable developmental growth through everyday classroom practice, the DGIs help teachers:

• observe and track progress

• reflect on practice

• clearly articulate how Montessori work supports children’s development over time

Teacher feedback is an essential part of how the DGIs will continue to develop, and at this time we are asking for input from practitioners in the field.