Our Program
Secondary I-II (ages 12 – 18) Credential
Interested in earning your Montessori Secondary Teaching Credential?
- CMStep now offers two options to help you meet your goal: a low-residency program and a high-residency program
- Both paths lead to the same outcome: an AMS Secondary I-II Credential
- Both paths utilize in-person and online coursework
- Our high-residency cohort for 2024 will be CMStep Cincinnati Cohort 19
- Our upcoming low-residency cohort (with in-person summer courses in OH, 2024 & 2025) will be CMStep Cohort 4
- Both high & low-residency cohorts will meet in Cincinnati, OH.
Application Deadlines:
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- Low-Residency: January 23rd, 2024 (Introduction to Montessori start date: January 28th, 2024, with in-person training in summer 2024)
- High-Residency: May 1, 2024
Check out the Pacing Guides and Calendars for more scheduling information!
High-Residency
In-person training time:
- Summer Intensives: 8 weeks total, spread over two or three summers (Final summer is always 3 weeks). For more detailed information on our High-Residency program sequence options, click here.
- Fall Intensive: Thursday through Monday (5 days)
Online coursework expectations:
- Digital winter intensive (5 days)
- Practicum Zoom sessions (3 sessions required, offered monthly)
- Two online courses:
- Montessori Overview, a prerequisite required for anyone who does not already possess a Montessori credential (40 hours)
- Mindfulness Fundamentals, required in the fall (10 hours)
Prerequisites:
- Montessori Overview online course (40 hours, fully self-paced)
- Prerequisite readings: 4 books and 9 articles from our website
We recommend securing your required readings for Overview (2 books) before you begin. Find the reading list and pre-training work here.
Application deadline: May 1, 2024
Please call after the deadline to see if space is still available.
Training begins: June 2024
This is the start of the orientation for the courses in Cincinnati.
Low-Residency
In-person training time:
- Summer Intensives: 3 weeks, spread over two summers (14 days in Summer 1, 8 days in Summer 2)
- Fall Intensive: Thursday through Monday (5 days)
Online coursework expectations:
- Semi-weekly practicum Zoom sessions (after Summer 1 school year)
- Regular online coursework. Low-residency participants should budget about 5 hours per week for online coursework, which is typically organized into four-week chunks called Minimesters. After each Minimester comes a one-week break. (Contact us for a more detailed schedule or check out the pacing guides here.)
- Two prerequisite online courses:
- Montessori Overview (a fully self-paced course required for anyone who does not already possess a qualifying Montessori credential)
- Introduction to Secondary Montessori Education (click here for more information)
Prerequisites:
- Montessori Overview online course (40 hours, fully self-paced)
- Introduction to Secondary Montessori (30 hours in 6 weeks, aprox. 5 hours/week)
- Admission interview with Katie Keller Wood (rolling, scheduled when application process is initiated)
We also recommend securing your required readings for Overview (2 books) and Minimesters 1-3 (4 books) before you begin. Find your reading list and pre-training work here.
Complete application deadline: January 23rd, 2024
The application must be completed in full, including the application fee.
After this deadline, please contact us. There are multiple section start dates throughout the year for the same in-person summer training.
Prerequisite coursework begins: January 2024
The online coursework begins with Introduction to Secondary Montessori, a prerequisite to the low-residency minimester courses. If you have already taken our Introduction as a stand alone course, please reach out to the CMStep office to let us know.
Not Sure Yet?
Prerequisite and beginning courses (Introduction to Secondary Montessori and Montessori Overview) can also be taken for stand-alone PD credit! Click here to learn more or sign up for these stand-alone courses. And don’t worry! If you take one of these two courses now and then choose to enroll for 2022 or 2023, the amount paid for your PD courses will be deducted from your total CMStep tuition bill.
