A Toolbox field guide · Now free
The Technology Operations Framework
Most schools assemble their technology stack the way most people assemble a kitchen drawer.
The student information system was chosen because the founder used it at her last school. The tuition processor was chosen because it integrated with the bank. Years later the systems do not talk to each other, no one remembers the passwords, and the data lives in five places that contradict each other.
This is the structure for making those decisions deliberately instead.
Said plainly
Montessori Makers Group operates MMAP, our own school operating system. This framework is vendor-agnostic by design, and it works for schools that use MMAP, schools that use something else, and schools choosing between them. If you use it to evaluate us honestly against the alternatives, that is exactly what it is for.
Part one
The twelve systems every Montessori school operates
Most schools think about systems one at a time, as needs arise. The result is a stack of tools that do not talk to each other and a leadership team spending real hours reconciling the same data across platforms.
Part two
Six dimensions for evaluating any vendor
Functional fit
Does it support Montessori-specific needs? Most tools handle grade levels, periods, and grades. They do not handle three-year cycles, multi-age groupings, or work-cycle observation without significant adaptation.
Data and integration
Who owns the data, and what does off-boarding look like? Every vendor relationship eventually ends. Knowing what leaving looks like is part of evaluating the joining.
Security and compliance
FERPA, COPPA, state student privacy law, PCI. Confirm the posture in writing, not in marketing copy.
Total cost of ownership
Subscription, implementation, ongoing staff time, integration, and the cost of switching away later. Implementation is often comparable to the first year of subscription.
Vendor health
Who owns this company? Private equity-owned vendors often experience pricing changes and feature deprecation that founder-owned vendors do not. Neither is inherently bad. Both are worth knowing.
Mission and values fit
Does this vendor understand Montessori, or are they treating you as one more independent school?
Part three walks through running a real selection process, so the decision holds up eighteen months later.
Free · 22 pages
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The full field guide: the twelve system categories, the six evaluation dimensions with the questions to ask under each, total-cost-of-ownership accounting, and the selection process itself.
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While you have the criteria open
Run them against us.
MMAP is the Montessori Makers Alignment Map: a school operating system built Montessori-native rather than adapted from a traditional model. Nido through adolescent, enrollment through board reporting, with a dashboard for leadership, faculty, board, and families.
Founder-owned. Ask the vendor-health questions. Ask the off-boarding questions. The framework tells you which ones matter.