Dallas ISD Elementary School Turns Into Montessori Campus

The school in East Dallas is currently undergoing a major transformation thanks to the efforts of the community.

Over the decades, the Edna Roe Elementary School has experienced a wave of progress. The campus has gone from a D-rated campus to an A-rated campus at ISD Dallas and has undergone a complete overhaul in 2019.

Now the next evolution will turn it into a Montessori school next year.

“This will be a great opportunity,” said principal Aaron Joseph. “It will be an innovative approach to accommodating our students and providing the fairness they need – removing some of the restrictions and encouraging choice, freedom, exploration and a new learning environment for our students.”

Edna Row is an existing campus in the Buckner Terrace area. When community members expressed interest in transforming the campus, leaders worked to make Montesori a reality, made possible through the ISD Dallas Public School selection process.

All selected schools are designed around an innovative core model such as Performing and Visual Arts, Montessori, Personalized Learning, or STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

The PSC app invites internal and external teams to submit proposals. Each school is chosen slightly differently and may depend on the needs of the community or location. In Edna Rowe’s case, the surrounding community pushed for the Montessori model to meet local needs.

“Over the past five years, the number of students in our school has been declining. We’ve been losing students from neighborhoods and that’s our approach to innovation,” Joseph said. we were losing.”

Montessori education is a popular learning model and the district has stated that due to high demand from families, they are working to bring this learning option to communities across the district.

Montessori classrooms feature hands-on materials, mixed-age groups, and guided job choice.

“The traditional classroom is more teacher-oriented, where the teacher has all the knowledge and she gives knowledge to the children. Then they just have to learn it the same way and at the same pace,” explained Christina Llamozas, a bilingual second grade teacher at Edna Rowe. “With Montessori, we follow the child. They are responsible for their own learning in the classroom, and we as teachers help them with that.”

A prepared learning environment promotes self-motivated growth of children in all areas of their development – cognitive, emotional, social and physical. Scientists have opportunities for individual, small and collaborative learning.

“If one student wants to do math in the morning and read in the afternoon, he can do it because he will work at his own pace,” Llamosas said. “So I think this is a great opportunity for me as an educator to grow up and learn more and also offer this opportunity to our children.”

Faculty and staff are currently undergoing training and ordering new materials and new classroom furniture.

Montessori-style education can usually cost families a lot of money in tuition, but Edna Row will be free. The school will become a lottery-based app, but 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades will remain at the school during the transition.

In the next academic year, starting in August 2023, Edna Roe Elementary School will officially open the new format. It will be the eighth Montessori DISD campus.