Accreditation:
Prepared Montessorian Institute is part of Higher Ground Education, an organization on a mission to mainstream and modernize Montessori education with the highest quality.
Dean
Joel Mendes
I’m a Montessori educator who has worked with students from birth to adulthood, helping humans find and create their own pathways and applying Montessori’s principles to my role as a dad, a youth soccer coach, a trainer, a manager, and a team leader.
Academic board members
Matt Bateman
Matt Bateman earned his bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 2004. While there, he worked in the Child Development Center researching the nature of early personality development in children. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2012 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied the history of thought in philosophy and psychology, as well as conducting research in cognitive science.
He taught and continued his research at Franklin and Marshall College in the Department of Psychology, on topics ranging from neuroscience to evolutionary theory to philosophy.
Dr. Bateman left his academic position in 2014 to join LePort Schools as Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy. There, he oversaw research and development of the school’s approach to education.
In 2016, Dr. Bateman became a founding member of Higher Ground as the Director of Content, where he is responsible for intellectual and pedagogical oversight across the organization. He is now Vice President of Pedagogy.
Dr. Bateman works closely with people across the organization, ensuring depth, quality, and consistency across curricular development projects, training, educational technology partnerships, and even strategic growth and messaging. He is closely involved with the development of new programming, such as language immersion and high school. And he acts as a key representative of Higher Ground’s educational philosophy, writing position papers, engaging with researchers, giving lectures, and engaging with the larger educational community.