New Jersey state assessment scores from 2023 reveal that 48.7 percent of students across the state are below grade level in English language arts and 62.4 percent are below grade level in math. While scores show an average of two percentage point improvement over the prior year, they remain lower than 2019.
The New Jersey Tutoring Corps, Inc. was launched as a statewide tutoring program during the summer of 2021 to help close widening academic gaps, increase students’ confidence and love of learning, and establish a statewide pathway of skilled educators. The program’s research-based, evidence-rich high-impact tutoring model provided direct support in math and literacy to Pre-K through eighth grade students both after school and through integration with summer and afterschool programs. In SY 2022-23, the Tutoring Corps piloted an embedded school-day program designed to provide its high-impact tutoring year-round as part of the school day.
Today, as an independent nonprofit, the New Jersey Tutoring Corps co-designs programming with school districts, hiring and training tutors to offer in-person high-impact tutoring to small groups of one to four students meeting for 30- to 60-minute sessions two to three times per week with the same tutor for 15-25 weeks, following the Annenberg Institute’s recommendations. By prioritizing close district partnerships, the Tutoring Corps increased its year-over-year reach by 64 percent in 2024, serving almost 4,000 total kindergarten through eighth grade students in 80 school sites across 25 districts. During this time, the organization also saw significant earned revenue growth, demonstrating strong demand for high-impact tutoring across New Jersey.
As the New Jersey Tutoring Corps’ in-school program expands and evolves, it continues to show potential positive impact for students. During SY 2023-24, grade-level-proficiency in math increased from four percent at the start of the school year to 26 percent following participation in the program, and from 12 to 30 percent in literacy, across grade levels. To more rigorously understand the impact of its tutoring support, the Tutoring Corps has partnered with Mathematica to conduct an ESSA Tier 2-aligned quasi-experimental design (QED) impact study estimating the effects of the program on student achievement, with findings anticipated in 2026.
Overdeck Family Foundation helped conceptualize and design the Tutoring Corps in 2021 as a response to state-wide learning loss exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, we have provided extensive consultative support and general operating grants, helping the organization launch its program, unlock new sources of funding, establish its 501(c)(3) status, build a long-term strategy to improve sustainability and increase reach, and gather and understand beneficiary feedback. The Foundation has also offered New Jersey Tutoring Corps ongoing research support through connections to external evaluation teams and iterative research design feedback as the organization embarks on its QED.
