There is a question we get asked a lot. Why Philadelphia? Why now? The answer is not complicated. But it is personal.
The Problem We Are Solving
In the School District of Philadelphia, only 17 percent of students are reading at grade level. Only 13 percent are meeting grade-level math proficiency standards. These are 2024-25 PSSA results published by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
These numbers do not represent a failure that begins in elementary school. The gap opens years earlier — in the time before kindergarten, when a child either receives a strong developmental foundation or does not.
Children who enter kindergarten behind their peers are five times more likely to remain behind. The window for intervention is not grade school. It is infancy through age five — the years when the brain forms over one million new neural connections every single second, and when the quality of a child's environment has the greatest impact on who they will become.
High-quality early childhood education is the most powerful lever available for changing a child's trajectory. And in Philadelphia, too many families have not had access to it.
That is what we are here to change.
Who We Are
Graduate Montessori Academy is the newest school in the Woodlyn Academy Organization — a network of early childhood education campuses in the Greater Philadelphia and Delaware County area, founded in 2016 by Tori Brown and Kathy Rivera.
Our flagship campus, Woodlyn Academy, opened in Woodlyn, Pennsylvania and earned the highest quality rating in the state — Keystone STARS STAR 4 — through a relentless commitment to educator training, curriculum quality, and family partnership.
Our second campus, Penrose Academy at 3000 Island Avenue in Philadelphia, brought the same standards to Southwest Philadelphia — and filled to capacity, because Philadelphia families recognized the difference immediately.
Graduate Montessori Academy is the next step. Full Montessori programming — from infancy through Pre-K — at 1719 Washington Avenue in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia. A brand new campus built from the ground up, rooted in the same model that has defined every school in our family.
Why Montessori
Montessori education was not designed for wealthy families. Dr. Maria Montessori developed her method in 1907 for children in the slums of Rome — children the system had written off.
Over a century of research confirms what she discovered: children who learn in a Montessori environment develop stronger academic outcomes, greater executive function, more robust social-emotional skills, and a deeper, more lasting love of learning than peers in traditional settings.
We chose Montessori because the evidence is unambiguous. And we chose Philadelphia because this is where the evidence needs to be applied most urgently.
What We Offer
Graduate Montessori Academy provides full Montessori programming from 6 weeks through Pre-K, following the same five-stage program ladder proven across our Woodlyn and Penrose campuses.
Our educators are trained through rigorous Montessori credentialing programs — the highest standard for Montessori educator preparation in Pennsylvania. Many of our teachers are actively pursuing Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Montessori education.
A STAR 4 quality standard built into every policy, every ratio, every classroom decision from day one.
Subsidy support for eligible families through ELRC and CCIS, because we believe access to excellence should not be determined by income.
A founding family experience — the chance to be part of this school from the very beginning, to help shape its culture, and to know that your child was among the first.
Come See It Before It Opens
We are scheduling Hard Hat Tours now — an exclusive look at the GMA campus before doors open this Fall. Walk the space. Meet the team. Ask every question you have before you commit.
Seats are available. This is your moment.
