Following the Child by aligning people and pedagogy.
We recruit Guides and Heads of School for Montessori environments. Every search is run by people who have worked in one, and assessed against practice rather than a keyword list.
A division of Childrens House, built on twenty years of relationships with Montessori schools.
The distinction that matters
Can run a process, but cannot assess whether a candidate genuinely understands the prepared environment.
Know the practice, but rarely have the time or method to run a search properly.
Both. We name credentials precisely, whether AMI, AMS, IMC or MACTE, and we tell you when a search is going to be difficult.
How a search runs
Three artifacts, in order. Nothing starts until we agree the role is fillable on the timeline you have.
Search Snapshot
A short consultation and a written read on the role: likely candidate pool, realistic timeline, and where the offer is weak.
Search Brief
The document you forward to your Board. Scope, compensation position, assessment criteria, timeline and named risks.
Search Pack
Shortlisted candidates with credentials verified, environments they have worked in, and our judgement on fit, including reservations.
Forty, five, one
For a single presented candidate we typically source around forty, and screen five or six. Most searches produce one candidate worth presenting. Occasionally two.
That ratio is why a hundred applications from a job board does not solve the problem, and why we would rather decline a search than take a fee for one we cannot fill.
“Searches involving Board approval typically add two to three weeks. Strong candidates with competing offers rarely wait that long.”
We ask what the spindle box is for
A credential tells us a candidate was trained. It does not tell us what they do with it in a classroom.
So we ask. We name a material a Guide at their level should know, and ask what it is for. One weak answer tells us nothing, so we ask about another, and a third if we need to. By then it is clear whether someone knows their environment or has learned the vocabulary around it.
Screening is done by two qualified Montessori trainers, together, and takes about an hour.
How we assessThe shortage is not the thing making your search difficult
“There are not enough Montessori teachers” is the wrong diagnosis, and it leads schools to the wrong solutions.
The real constraint is intersectional. A school needing an AMI-credentialled Upper Elementary Guide, with lead classroom experience, willing to relocate, at a particular salary, starting in August, is drawing from a pool dramatically smaller than the number of people meeting any one of those conditions.
National counts of Montessori graduates cannot tell you how difficult your search will be. The intersection is what matters, and it is different for every role.
We also found something that changes how compensation should be thought about. One experienced Guide told us she had left a higher-paying public Montessori role and was not looking to match it:
“I can continue, making lots of money, in a public Montessori situation, but it’s very stressful and not very enjoyable when you can’t fully implement all of the Montessori philosophy.”
A school can lose a candidate while paying more. A school can also win one while paying less.
What we will and will not tell you
We would rather decline a search than take a fee for one we cannot fill. Where we do not have the data, we say so.
“Some aspects of this search are naturally challenging, while others are within your control.”
“We don’t yet have enough closed searches in this region to share a specific timeline.”
Start with a Search Snapshot
Twenty minutes on the role, and a written read on whether it is fillable. No obligation to run the search with us.
Ninety-day guarantee. We invoice when your new Guide starts, not before. If the placement does not hold within ninety days, we run the search again at no further fee.