Overdeck Family Foundation’s funding helped Science Buddies, which offers access to an online database of over 1,200 high-quality science fair project ideas, expand support for K-12 teacher mentors. In January 2023, Science Buddies launched its Google Classroom Science Project Pathway, designed to make it easier for teachers to help students as they concept, develop, and present their projects. Initial internal findings on the use of the Google Classroom Science Project Pathway show that 82 percent of student users understand how scientists use the scientific method to answer a question, among other insights.

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Overdeck Family Foundation funding helped Tools of the Mind, a nonprofit that provides comprehensive Pre-K and kindergarten curriculum and teacher professional development, continue to innovate and scale after the pandemic. In 2023, the organization piloted the SEED app, which enables teachers to periodically assess young children’s self-regulation development across the year within a variety of regular classroom activities. Pilot results show that teachers were able to assess 98 percent of students during regular instruction in the first week of launch, and that assessment using SEED was quick and efficient.
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Utilizing funding from Overdeck Family Foundation, OnYourMark, a nonprofit that provides high-impact virtual tutoring to students in kindergarten through second grade, gained insight into the potential impact of virtual tutoring on student learning. The organization worked with Stanford University to conduct a randomized controlled trial of OnYourMark, which examined over 2,000 students across 12 schools. Researchers found that OnYourMark tutoring had a positive impact on students’ early literacy skills, as measured with an assessment called the DIBELS, with the largest effects on kindergarteners’ knowledge of letter sounds and first graders’ decoding skills.
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In 2021, Overdeck Family Foundation worked with the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund to launch the New Jersey Tutoring Corps, a high-dosage, small-group, tutoring program designed to accelerate learning recovery for students impacted by pandemic-related learning losses. An external evaluation of the Tutoring Corps’ school-day program, piloted in SY 2022-23, found that of the approximately 500 students served, the percentage performing at grade level in math improved from 16 to 40 percent, and in literacy from 23 to 40 percent.
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EdReports used funding from Overdeck Famly Foundation to grow the use of its online platform, which publishes reviews of K-12 instructional materials and supports districts and states in selecting high-quality instructional materials. In 2023, the organization reached 3.2 million unique website visitors (a 45 percent year-over-year increase) and experienced a rise in demand for its technical assistance services. This resulted in 19 new or expanded partnerships with states, districts, local education agencies, and nonprofits, designed to help partners build capacity to review and select high-quality and standards-aligned curricula.
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Overdeck Family Foundation’s funding allowed DiscoverE to expand the reach of Future City, a program that offers middle school students the chance to use the engineering design process to solve a civic engineering challenge related to sustainability in a hypothetical city in the future. In SY 2022-23, Future City grew its reach by 94 percent, serving 67,000 students. Educators and students who participate in Future City report positive impacts: 80 percent of students increase their understanding of engineering and 78 percent of educators recommend the program.
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