The Montessori Movement: Built by Teachers, Nurtured by Parents

Inside Cincinnati’s Montessori classrooms, the hum of student-led learning isn’t just a method – it’s a mindset. It’s been that way for decades, nurtured by a movement powered as much by belief as by curriculum.

Montessori within Cincinnati Public Schools didn’t survive because it was trendy. It survived because people made it personal.

“Kids are teachers. Kids are learners. We take care of each other,” said Jane Markowski, a longtime upper-elementary teacher at Sands Montessori. Her students stay with her for three years at a time – long enough, she says, to become family.

That continuity is one of the foundational tenets of the Montessori movement, especially within CPS. It’s not just multi-age grouping for the sake of novelty. It’s a way to build trust, consistency and a deep understanding of each child’s journey. For many teachers, that relationship is the heart of the work.

“I am a teacher, but I’ve learned so much from the kids,” Markowski said.

That reciprocity – teachers learning from students and parents working side by side with educators – is what gave Cincinnati’s Montessori programs their staying power. And in a field often forced to justify new models, Montessori earned its longevity not through test scores or top-down mandates, but through grassroots ownership.

Antria Goss, a Montessori teacher coach who has worked with multiple schools, says that ownership is what propelled the movement forward. “In 2023, we got Montessori approved as a district curriculum, which was huge,” she said. “The goal of the Montessori environment is really building independence.”

But independence doesn’t mean isolation. Montessori’s philosophy, built on Dr. Maria Montessori’s original work in early 20th-century Italy, insists on community. At CPS, that community was built by teachers like Goss and Markowski – and by parents who volunteered their time, advocated for their children, and showed up, day after day.

One of the movement’s overlooked foundations in Cincinnati was its surprising source of early expertise: former nuns. In the 1960s and ‘70s, several Catholic orders sent sisters to study Montessori methods in Rome and Ireland. When those women left religious life, many brought their training with them – into Cincinnati’s public classrooms.

They weren’t just philosophically aligned with Montessori’s quiet discipline and reflective pedagogy – they were also formally trained. Their presence lent an air of confidence and credibility to an approach that, at the time, seemed radical to traditional educators.

The university community also played a key role. Xavier University became a reliable pipeline of Montessori-certified teachers, offering a structured way for public school educators to train in what had long been a private school model. Many of CPS’s most influential Montessori educators – including those who helped launch Sands and later Clark Montessori – earned their credentials through Xavier’s program.

While the method itself focuses on hands-on materials, personal pacing and uninterrupted work cycles, the movement inside CPS was never just about pedagogy. It was about people: teachers who stayed, parents who organized and administrators who fought to protect the model in a system not always designed for flexibility.

Long before Montessori became a fixture in Cincinnati’s public schools, it was a leap of faith for the families who enrolled their children. Drawn by a philosophy that emphasized independence and joy in learning, parents often found themselves becoming more than observers – they became builders of a school culture rooted in collaboration, creativity and trust.

“We were down there a lot. We made Montessori materials, we went on field trips, we were room mothers. It wasn’t just drop-off and pick-up – we were part of it,” said Susan Mueller, the mother of three former Montessori students in the 1970s and 80s.​

That community built the culture. And over the decades, the culture became the brand.

Today, Cincinnati has one of the most robust public Montessori offerings in the country. But its strength is still measured in relationships, not rankings. That’s why students, teachers and parents stay. Because in a Montessori classroom, everyone’s a learner — and everyone belongs.