Last week the New Jersey Tutoring Corp (NJTC) released the annual “Efficacy Report,” which analyzes to what degree students did or didn’t benefit from NJTC’s high-dosage tutoring during the 2023-24 school year, its second year of operation. 

NJTC has become the Garden State’s focal point for tutoring throughout the state, implementing tutoring in schools and community organizations across New Jersey, serving as the leading proponent for tutoring in Trenton, and working closely in advocating and operationalizing tutoring at the public school level.  As part of its mission and belief in transparency, NJTC releases to the public the findings of an annual independent third-party evaluation, which was conducted this year by Dr. Ellen Sherratt, a nationally recognized researcher who once led the American Institutes of Research (AIR) Educator Talent Management Initiatives, co-authored the book, “Improving Teacher Quality: A Guide for Education Leaders,” and currently serves as Board Chair of the Teacher Salary Project.   

NJTC’s growth was, in part, instigated by the New Jersey Department of Education’s lackluster attempt to create a statewide high-dosage tutoring program, which failed to garner both tutors and momentum. NJTC stepped in to fill the gap, while also receiving support from Governor Phil Murphy, Senate Majority Leader Theresa Ruiz, and Senate Education Committee Chair Vin Gopal. 

This new report tracks the growth of scholars with whom NJTC worked during the last school year, reviews NJTC’s training protocols, and provides both quantitative data for scholars in Math and Literacy during the 2023-24 school year and qualitative data tracking general satisfaction in its operations.  It also highlights significant gains in the number of NJTC scholars meeting statewide grade-level standards in math, which jumped from 4% of NJTC scholars at the beginning of the last school year to 26% after 10-20 weeks of NJTC tutoring.  In Literacy, NJTC scholars improved from 12 percent to 30 percent.

In addition to the dramatic grade-level growth, the report showcases NJTC’s operations compared to its first year of inception, dramatically scaling in 2023-24 to serve over 3600 scholars with 25 partners in 80 sites around the state and employing 57 site coordinators and 226 tutors.  During NJTC’s first full year in 2022-23, it served approximately 500 scholars.  Other data points reviewed in the report include that 97% of NJTC scholars enjoyed working with their tutor, 92% of NJTC scholars enjoyed participating in NJTC tutoring, and 81% of NJ scholars now believed they could assist their peers with Math or Literacy after tutoring. 

“Transparency is the bedrock of NJTC. When NJTC launched just two years ago, we believed honest, real, scientific data and perspective must consistently serve as our north star. We are thankful to Dr. Sherratt for providing an in-depth, thorough, and detailed analysis of the NJTC 2023-34 school year, and we will always remain committed to ensuring the state is provided each year with this valuable independent analysis,”  stated NJTC CEO Katherine Bassett. “Just two years ago, New Jersey had no statewide tutoring mechanism for its public school scholars. In that time, NJTC built a strong but efficient team, continuously vetted and trained our tutors, developed partnerships with school districts and community organizations throughout the state, and dramatically scaled throughout New Jersey.  Most of all, through the support of various foundations, state support, and partnerships with local school districts,  New Jersey has truly built a national model for how tutoring can best serve communities.  We are grateful to Governor Murphy, Senate Majority Leader Ruiz, and Senate Education Committee Chair Gopal for their great support and our school districts’ amazing work at the local level.  Together, we have filled a void.  Now NJTC remains committed to driving innovation and fighting to ensure every child in the state has access to high-impact tutoring.”

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, The Tepper 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.  Specifically, NJTC co-designs tutoring programs 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 throughout 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.