Instituto Nueva Escuela

We aim to make sure low-income communities in Puerto Rico have access to a world-class education that improves academic and social outcomes benefiting students, families, communities, and teachers through the Montessori philosophy. We seek to eradicate poverty, violence, and social crisis, transforming public schools so students have access to the world of employment and post-secondary education; learning their vocation so they can pursue it and serve the common good, contributing to a more equitable solidary society.

For the year 2025, Instituto Nueva Escuela seeks to transform 100 schools, to reach 30,000 students and their families, and to train and certificate 1,500 teachers in this educational methodology.

We establish a proven model that brings together three elements of change: a) scientifically proven Montessori pedagogy that serves children in complete early day childhood to high school programs—good academics, peace culture, and character-building; b) reconstruction of “community social tissue”, as we work collectively and promote participative governance of teachers school personnel and families; c) the enrollment of families, as they are integrated into round tables, volunteer projects, workshops, and parents’ association.

Why Montessori? Children and youth learn in an environment prepared according to their stage of development and their needs. They experience respect, inclusiveness, freedom, order, and joy for learning. It becomes a “mini” society where they practice a culture of values and behavior that leads to becoming collaborators for the common good.

For this, we train teachers, teacher assistants, and school personnel, not only to become Montessorians but to be leaders in their communities and advocates of public education. We are the only institution in PR credited to provide Montessori certification.

As we accompany school communities through their Transformation, "Schools for Peace Project" provides a place in every school that mobilizes mental health and general well-being resources as psychological services, artistic therapy, support groups, and workshops for prevention.

We stand for access to schools that not only provide high-quality education but integrate a holistic approach to well-being to its students, families, and faculty.

We collaborate and partner with the private sector, government, foundations, and overall, the communities. There is a relationship between the creation of challenging academic work, offering what each child needs, and well peaceful behavior. The Montessori methodology allows every child to experience success as a new collective joy emerges; very different from the "punitive" method we observe in the regular public school education in Puerto Rico. The most important aspect is the compromise that we can achieve from our families. We enroll families with every child that comes to school. Parents are part of the decision making where public policy is developed. Parents are hired as a teacher's assistant in the Montessori classroom and take courses that prepare them for the job.

Instituto Nueva Escuela has the necessary capacities to fulfill its mission, by having a highly qualified team divided into six offices to serve each area of ​​our school communities according to the presented need, equipped with the specialized personnel to attend every area of our schools' community with professionalism. We have managed to have the largest number of public Montessori schools in the world.

Among our team, we have professionals in each Montessori level to offer certified courses for teachers, school staff, and principals. We have had to transform our courses into virtual courses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have hired digital professionals to make our courses’ videos the best quality possible; and we have invested in a platform to offer the courses successfully.

Our leaders, upon seeing a public school once condemned and now flourishing and evolving into a model of excellence, are committed to replicate this “miracle” elsewhere. Guided by the values of truth, faith, love, peace, and justice, we strive to bring hope and advancement to low-income communities throughout Puerto Rico.

Organizational accomplishments:

As of today, Instituto Nueva Escuela already has 60 school communities: 52 public schools, and 8 non-profits. We have impacted approximately 17,000 students and 30,000 families, and have trained and certified over 600 teachers and assistants. We have also been recognized with the Bright Spot in Education by the White House (2015- 2016), the Tina Hills (2017), and the Living Legacy Award 2020 by the American Montessori Society. In 2018, our government approved Law #277 to establish the Montessori Auxiliary Secretariat of Education within the Department of Education. This law ensures the project's sustainability and makes Montessori accessible to more children and families of the Island. It protects the integrity of the Montessori curriculum offered in each school. Also, we had credited all our programs of Montessori certification, and we have been recognized at a federal level approving the Crime Assistance Victim Grant (VOCA) by the Justice Department.

Also, we have accomplished the following programmatic achievements:

-90% of student attendance.
-76% of the children that pass from Children’s House to Elementary Program from schools with four or more years into Montessori philosophy, tend to have better reading skills than expected.

-75% of the schools with more years within our system succeed with better results in the META’s compared to the other public schools.

-93% of teacher attendance.

-92% of retention of teachers in the public Montessori project.

-90% of the teachers feel motivated to implement the Montessori curriculum in their environments.

-68% of the schools have a violence-free environment.

-0% of school dropouts in our Montessori communities.

-86% of the families participate in the collection of students’ reports.

-94% of family satisfaction with their children 's schools

-96% of the families recommend these public Montessori schools.

-90% of the parents decide to keep their children enrolled in our school communities.

-70% of the adult apprentices showed satisfaction with the courses offered in our Montessori certification.