West Side students spend two to three years with the same teacher, giving teachers multiple years to observe each child’s emerging personality and learning styles, to encourage natural abilities, and to address the needs of the whole child.

Continual observation is the key to being able to “read” each child and provide the direction he or she needs. This is one of the reasons why West Side’s student-to-teacher ratio is so low – an average of 12 students per classroom teacher.

Two teachers are present in every classroom with at least one teacher certified in Montessori methods in addition to meeting the state’s required certification. In most classrooms both teachers are Montessori certified, predominantly by the American Montessori Society.