Desert Montessori Academy

We are thankful to have found this amazing Montessori school here. Our child has blossomed and we can see the reflection of the montessori methods in him. All teachers are wonderful, loving and truly care about their students. Thank you⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I teach English at a community college, and I place a high value on early childhood education. I researched several schools in the AV and Desert Montessori Academy is hands down the best. My daughter has been attending for three years; she is one year ahead in her academic studies. Because of my daughter's late November birthday, she would have languished in between preschool and kindergarten for an additional year. However, at Desert Montessori the children are given the work they are ready to do. Kindergartners work next to first, second, and third graders so they are encouraged to learn from each other and set higher goals. My daughter will be in first grade in the fall, and thanks to Desert Montessori, I know she is well on her way to becoming a life-long self-motivated learner.

Our family has been a part of Desert Montessori for the past three years. I fell in love with the Montessori method during our walk through and really appreciated the Principal Sharla's energy and commitment to the kids. The community usually has a good mix of ex-pat families and Edwards Air Force base folks. The new Bambino Room for babies is phenomenal. A great place for really small kids to grow up! My favorite is the Birthday Circle a Montessori Tradition that celebrates each child by having them do a ceremony that involves them walking around the sun once for each year of their life. I also really enjoy the very tactile and hands-on nature of the work and the use of a lot of wood in the materials. The teachers also teach the kids tools to resolve conflict and work through their upsets. Some kids were doing multiplication in kindergarden of their own volition. Montessori is about student directed learning- helping them find their own spark and following it. Great stuff.

We love this school. Very low student to teacher ratios. Dependable, caring teachers. Unique subject areas in addition to the traditional core curriculum (chess, jujutsu, Spanish, classical art and music, etc). Both my children are performing 1 year head of their grades. My kids love going to school there, and often ask to stay longer when I come to pick them up. Definitely fosters a love of learning!

At best, this is an overpriced day care center. In addition to the steep cost of tuition, parents are required to perform duties like doing the school's laundry (I swear I'm not making this up) and contribute several hundred dollars to each of the school's fundraising events, which are mandatory. The teachers leave the children unattended to talk on their cell phones and the administrators are blatant in their favoritism of students who will be returning next year. Don't worry about a waiting list. There are far more children leaving this school than enrolling. The Antelope Valley is a relatively low socioeconomic part of Los Angeles county, so some parents enroll their children here due to fear of violence in public schools, or simply for the bragging rights of sending their children to a Montessori academy. These parents should plan on keeping their children in private schools through high school. Desert Montessori only goes through the 3rd grade, and will leave the children ill-prepared for public school. The Montessori system is based on letting children do their own thing at their own pace, and the teachers are either unwilling or unable to provide assistance to children who may require special attention. The only accreditation required to be a Montessori "teaching associate" are a high school diploma and completion of the short Montessori accreditation course (state accreditation is not required for private schools). We have several friends who are California state accredited instructors and administrators at the elementary, high school, and college levels. All of them warned us that Montessori would probably be a bad choice for our child, with whom they are all acquainted or related. Against their advice, we bought the school's sales pitch, and it proved to be a big mistake. The facility is located in an old house in a residential part of town most people wouldn't want their children in after dark, and the staff frequently arrives late, causing parents to wait until someone shows up to let their children in. Ditto for the end of the day, when teachers are in a hurry to get home and try to rush the parents to pick up their children. In more affluent areas, Montessori academies may be able to attract qualified administrators and instructors. Unfortunately, the staff at this facility is under-qualified to provide quality instruction, and most of them aren't qualified to be good babysitters. Our child's teacher told us she was "overwhelmed" because she had 7 children in her class. If you're set on private school, Desert Christian will provide better structure and education than Desert Montessori, which is the reason Desert Christian's enrollment is significantly higher than Desert Montessori's. We deeply regret the time, money and energy we invested in Desert Montessori. In my opinion, it is more of a cult than a school. Education is always expensive, but we had no idea what a bad investment we were making by enrolling our child here.