People often ask how Montessori schools handle assessment, grading, and testing (standardized or otherwise). While the Montessori method has clear guidelines regarding testing, each school incorporates those guidelines differently.
In the Early Childhood Division here at Kingsley Montessori School, our approach to assessment depends on a thoughtfully prepared classroom environment, and formative observations by teachers throughout each day. This results in detailed record-keeping, which informs everything from what lessons to present and which classroom materials to emphasize, to how to approach goal-setting and progress reports.
Assessments are an important and necessary component of education. The fundamental purpose of assessments is that they give teachers information about what a child knows or is able to do, as a means of informing what should be taught or done next.