Possibilities for Public Montessori Teacher Evaluation: A Selected Literature Review

Public school districts in the United States are increasingly adopting the Montessori approach to boost student achievement, diversify student populations, and attract families. As the number of public Montessori schools in the United States grows (Fleming et al., 2024), so does the number of Montessori educators who are assessed in conventional teacher evaluation frameworks that may not fully align with Montessori pedagogy. In this article, I discuss research with relevance to teacher evaluation for public Montessori teachers in the United States. I used the lens of self-determination theory (SDT) to conduct a literature review of recent peer-reviewed studies, to explore insights related to public Montessori teacher appraisal. The bulk of the selected articles employed qualitative methods and SDT-adjacent frameworks. Based on research from general education settings, Montessori contexts, and emerging scholarship on public Montessori teacher evaluation, I suggest a twofold consideration: (1) that the general education field notes some concern with summative, compliance-oriented, and quantitative teacher evaluation systems, and (2) that these systems present an additional concern of pedagogical alignment in public Montessori settings. As a result, I suggest applying the SDT constructs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness to draw implications for future study and practice, including considerations for greater pedagogical alignment of Montessori teacher evaluation systems with Montessori practice.