"If education is protection to life, you will realize that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course."
- Maria Montessori
"If education is protection to life, you will realize that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course."
- Maria Montessori
American Montessori Society
The American Montessori Society is a worldwide organization responsible for leading, empowering, and serving the global community of Montessori educators. Besides mobilizing forces for Montessori causes all over the globe through research and support services, they also offer official accreditation to select learning institutions.
In the case of MSC, besides being a member school of the AMS, we’re also AMS-accredited. This means we’re among the 15% of member schools that share this distinction, achieving excellence on all 5 essential components needed to develop quality Montessori programs, which are:
Properly trained Montessori teachers
Mixed-age classrooms
Use of original Montessori learning materials
Child-directed network
Uninterrupted work periods
SAIS
MSC also has an SAIS (Serving and Accrediting Independent Schools) certification, which is offered to independent schools that comply with rigorous standards set by the organization.
The inspection process includes the evaluations of facilities, staff, learning methods, and overall infrastructure.
The accreditation process happens in three stages:
- Verification of compliance with standards/indicators
- Completion of a self-study
- Visit by a team of peer educators
Submitting to this certification is voluntary and is something you should look for when searching for schools for your child.
Green Steps School
The connection between our Montessori work cycle and the environment is very deliberate and a key attribute of the learning experiences we offer at MSC. We firmly believe in the importance of direct contact with nature, and encourage students to take responsibility for their natural surroundings by respecting and taking care of them.
The Green Steps Schools program, created by the EEASC, rewards South Carolina schools that are successful in establishing sustainability projects to learn, act, and teach others about the importance of protecting and conserving nature.
NWF Certified Schoolyard Habitat
The Montessori School of Columbia is dedicated to creating and maintaining green and natural spaces for students, teachers, and nature to thrive in harmony. The National Wildlife Federation “has helped K-12 schools across the country create Schoolyard Habitats® to restore native habitats, provide access to nature, and create outdoor classrooms, helping learning to come alive across the curriculum. Schools become hubs for enhancing biodiversity, exploring climate resiliency, and building community. Thousands of schools are participating, and the numbers keep growing.” MSC has been a Certified Schoolyard Habitat for nearly a decade.
