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Montessori education is the oldest and most widely implemented alternative education in the world and includes a full system of lessons and hands-on materials for children from birth to 18 years, presented individually, and embedded in a philosophical framework regarding children's development and its optimal conditions. The objectives of this review were to examine the effectiveness of Montessori education in improving academic and nonacademic outcomes compared to traditional education, and to determine the degree to which grade level, Montessori setting (public Montessori vs. private Montessori), random assignment, treatment duration, and length of follow-up measurements moderate the magnitude of Montessori effects. Relevant studies were searched in 19 academic databases, in a variety of sources known to publish gray literature, in Montessori-related journals, and in the references of studies retrieved through these searches. This review found that Montessori education had a significant positive impact on academic and nonacademic outcomes. Studies with random assignment, elementary school age level, and private Montessori schools had larger effects.

In 2007, Randolph conducted a meta-analysis of response-card articles to determine the effect of response cards on test achievement, quiz achievement, class participation, and off-task behavior. This meta-analysis is an update of that analysis, including new studies conducted in the last 12 years. A total of 15 studies published between 2005 and 2019 were analyzed along with the previous 14 used in the Randolph study. The results indicate evidence to support the use of response cards. When utilizing response cards, both students in special education and students in general education displayed increases in test and quiz achievement and levels of participation and decreases in off-task behavior. These results indicate that response cards remain a simple and cost-effective strategy for improving student's academic and behavioral outcomes.

The Montessori method is an attractive alternative to traditional education for many parents in the United States of America and abroad (Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006). There are between 4,000 and 5,000 private Montessori programs in the United States, and thousands more internationally (American Montessori Society, 2016; Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006, North American Montessori Teachers' Association, 2016; USA Montessori Census, 2016). Apart from private Montessori schools, there are at least 500 public Montessori schools throughout the United States (National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector, 2016). Numerous qualitative narratives espousing the benefits of Montessori education to enhance executive functioning (e.g., working memory, self-regulation, and reasoning abilities), academic achievement, and social competence are readily available. Despite the existence of these narratives, hardly any empirical consensus regarding the actual utility of the Montessori approach can be found (Diamond, 2010). The primary objective of this review will be to examine the effectiveness of Montessori education in improving academic and behavioral outcomes compared to traditional public school education. The secondary outcomes will be to determine what factors moderate the reported effectiveness of Montessori education. Possible moderators include the age of students, setting, type of teacher training, student characteristics, study quality, study design, among others.

Academic researchers often approach community mental healthcare agencies, such as Family Services of Western Pennsylvania (FSWP), to request access to the populations we serve for study samples. The usual request [...]

In this article, the author discusses about his private library. Topics discussed include buying used paperbacks at the University of Georgia (UGA) bookstore for comparative literature classes, postwar Eastern European literature that often dwelled on the banality of life, and library would partner with a local book distributor during the Friends of the Library book sales.