The Fulton County school board is visiting schools today in DeKalb County to check out the district’s magnet programs and how effective they are in boosting student achievement.
The board will visit Briar Vista Elementary Thursday morning, which has a Montessori program, followed by Fernbank Elementary, which has an International Baccalaureate Primary Year Programme.
The board's research into the programs are part of the Fulton school system's efforts to provide more school choice options for parents, offering alternative programs to the traditional public school model.
Montessori programs, once an option only for parents able to afford private schools, are increasingly in demand for public school students, though education officials say such a specialized approach can be costly.
Georgia has at least four Montessori programs in public school districts, and Fulton plans to join the trend by opening two new ones. The schools are part of a small but growing group of public systems in the U.S. to espouse the educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori, which allows students to learn more independently.
DeKalb is considered a public-school Montessori pioneer in Georgia that started its programs nearly 15 years ago.
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