Zwicker Bill To Establish Tutoring For NJ Students Clears Committee

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ – A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Andrew Zwicker that looks to make high-impact tutoring sessions accessible to NJ students cleared the Senate Education Committee on a 4-0 vote.

Zwicker (D-Middlesex, Mercer), a South Brunswick resident, sponsored the bill along with Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth).

The bill, S-3220, also established a high-efficiency accelerated learning grant program in the Department of Education.

If passed the program will aid students to recover from learning loss and improve academic achievement among students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Under the bill, the DOE will publish a list of tutoring providers with a record of high-quality instruction in math and English language arts. The department will develop performance standards and guides and would evaluate tutoring programs and determine the minimum qualification to be included in the department’s list of high-quality tutoring providers.

“The data is clear. Top-quality tutoring can be a game-changer. It helps students achieve, and teaches them how to learn. This should be a matter of urgency for every district in the state,” Zwicker said in a statement.

The grant program would be designed to support tutoring programs implemented by local education providers in partnership with a tutoring provider included on the department’s list.

The department would then develop and release program guidelines and a grant application process within 180 days of the publishing of the list of tutoring providers.

“While many quality tutoring programs already exist in pockets around the state, this legislation will help make sure that every child in need of high-impact tutoring instruction can have access to it,” Gopal, Chair of the Education Committee, said in a statement. “Research has shown time and again that robust, high-dosage tutoring is one of the best tools we have to combat learning loss and to raise student achievement.”

Grant funds for the program would be awarded to local education providers on a matching basis, subject to available funding.

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