On December 4th the Department of Education released the statewide New Jersey Student Learning Assessment data from last spring’s state standardized test results, showing that proficiency rates of New Jersey students continued to remain below pre-pandemic levels.  Over 48 percent of all New Jersey students did not meet expectations in English Language Arts, and over 60 percent did not meet basic requirements in Math.  Most alarming was the clear achievement gap among core New Jersey demographic student groups, which showed a 45 percent point gap in reading proficiency between the state’s highest-performing group, Asian-American students, and the lowest-performing group, African-American students. In math, the gap between these two groups is 55.8 points, with 75 percent of Asian-American students meeting grade-level expectations and only 19.3 percent of African-American students meeting expectations.

Full statewide results can be found HERE, and a helpful understanding of how the test scores measure student achievement can be found HERE.  

The following is a statement from New Jersey Tutoring Corps (NJTC ) Chief Executive Officer Katherine Bassett:

“Today’s results clearly show that we all have far more work to do for our children.  Despite the efforts of excellent teachers, students are struggling to meet grade-level proficiency in math and literacy. These results are unacceptable, and we must commit to promoting innovation, challenging the status quo, and fully supporting and investing in the solutions that are making an impact.

“NJTC was created as a corrective response to the state’s dramatic learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, and, thanks to Governor Murphy, New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Ruiz, New Jersey Senate Education Chair Vin Gopal, and strong partnerships with a variety of statewide anchor institutions, New Jersey now has the needed centralized, statewide tutoring infrastructure and NJTC serves as a focal point for tutoring throughout the state.  Together, thanks to their support, NJTC has scaled dramatically since its launch, growing in 2023-24 to serve over 3600 scholars with 25 partners in 80 sites statewide and employing 57 site coordinators, instructional coaches, and 226 tutors.  

“Time and time again, local and national data show that high-impact tutoring matters and makes a real difference in student success.  Our annual, independently analyzed NJTC’s 2023-2024 school year report shows that high-impact tutoring is key to closing academic gaps while increasing learner confidence, providing a significantly high return on investment, and, in areas where it is implemented, driving assessment results into far more positive territory.

“However, going into the current school year, federal and state funding for tutoring has decreased significantly, and many of the opportunities that allowed tutoring after the pandemic have now sunset.  NJTC knows firsthand that there are New Jersey school districts that desperately want to implement tutoring programs, but they need support.  These test results are yet another in a series of wake-up calls for all of us.  As the leading proponent for tutoring in the state, NJTC believes in the power of results, and we will continue to work with our local and state elected officials and superintendents to promote the value of tutoring and fight to further scale tutoring efforts across the state so we can effectively and efficiently address this education crisis.”

Initially established by First Lady Tammy Murphy, Laura Overdeck, and anchor institutions such as the Overdeck Family Foundation, the Community Foundation of New Jersey, the New Jersey Children’s Foundation, the Prudential Foundation, and the Debra and Kenneth Caplan Foundation, NJTC serves as a needed corrective response to the state’s dramatic learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic.  NJTC’s model is co-designed with schools, districts, and community partners, ensuring its research-based, evidence-rich program meets individual partners’ needs. NJTC staff members provide responsive, personalized, hands-on instruction aligned to New Jersey state standards. Partners co-design each implementation. Tutors are often embedded in classrooms during the school day and receive support from instructional coaches and site coordinators. Tutors serve scholars in 30 to 60-minute embedded sessions during the school day, after school, or in summer programs two to three times per week. The program provides a 1:1 up to 1:3 tutor-to-scholar ratio for each tutoring session, with sessions held two to three times weekly for 30 to 60 minutes with the same tutor working with the same scholars throughout a program cycle, following the recommendations of the Annenberg Institute.