The South Orange-Maplewood School District is employing $140,000 in ESSER II funds — American Rescue Plan money provided to schools to ameliorate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic — to launch a long-planned, round-the-clock, free online tutoring program for students grades 3 through 12.
The program, offered through the vendor Tutor.com, will be available to students on the first day of classes, Thursday, September 7, 2023. Students can access Tutor.com by signing into their Google accounts and clicking on the Tutor.com icon that will appear at the top of the screen.
Tutoring will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 361 days of the year in more than 200 subjects, including English Language Arts, algebra, calculus, physics, chemistry, world languages and computer science. Tutors are available for Advanced Placement courses as well as PSAT, SAT and ACT prep from The Princeton Review. [A list of services is provided in the press release from the district below.]
The district will also continue its relationship with the Achieve Foundation of South Orange and Maplewood, which typically provides about 350 tutors — adults and students — to assist students in grades K-12, both online (starting with the pandemic school closures) and in person. Achieve also provides tutoring services free to students.
South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education 1st Vice President Elissa Malespina, who is Chair of the Curriculum & Instruction Committee, lauded the addition of the new online Tutor.com program, writing in an email to Village Green, “The C&I committee and the administration have been working since the start of the pandemic to introduce free tutoring services for our students. We had aimed to launch these services sooner, but some challenges delayed us. Thanks to the ESSER funds, we’re now able to make this a reality. We truly hope all our district families and students will take advantage of the array of offerings the company provides.”
“This is a major step forward in leveling the playing field among our students,” said Ann Bodnar, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. “Our students deserve the best opportunities for academic success, and that means we must provide our students with the resources they need to achieve that success. It is our hope that by providing online tutoring and other academic support resources through Tutor.com, we will not only help our students achieve their best in school but our District will also achieve its goal of becoming more equitable.”
At the May 2023 BOE meeting, Bodnar indicated that ESSER funds would be used for tutoring — as well as other programs — after BOE President Kaitlin Wittleder expressed concern that the district was lagging behind other districts in COVID fund spending and risked losing funds that were expiring.
Supt. of Schools Dr. Ronald Taylor credited Bodnar and her team with the program as well as the district Information Technology department, noting that the online tutoring program would not be possible without the IT department “successfully providing all of our students with Chromebooks and internet access during the pandemic shutdown.”
A middle school student using tutlor.com. Photo courtesy of tutor.com.
Read the South Orange-Maplewood School District’s full press release here:
MAPLEWOOD, N.J. – District officials today announced a new online tutoring service that is now available to students in grades 3 through 12 round-the-clock at no cost to them. This academic support has been made available through a District partnership with Tutor.com, an affiliate of The Princeton Review. Through the partnership, expert tutors are available 24/7, and 1-to-1 tutoring for each student is unlimited.
“One of the most effective ways to enhance instruction and student achievement is through tutoring. This partnership is making tutoring more available than ever, and that is completely aligned with our efforts to build greater equity among our students and their ability to achieve academic success,” said Dr. Ronald Taylor, Superintendent of the Schools of South Orange and Maplewood. “This would not be possible without the efforts of our Information Technology Department successfully providing all of our students with Chromebooks and internet access during the pandemic shutdown. I want to thank them, Assistant Superintendent Ann Bodnar, and our Curriculum and Instruction Team for their efforts in making this resource available to so many of our students.”
“We applaud SOMSD for their commitment to providing equitable, individualized tutoring for students districtwide,” said Sandi White, Chief Institutional Officer at Tutor.com and The Princeton Review. “We have seen the impact that on-demand support has on student achievement, and we are dedicated to providing expert help—anytime, anywhere—that gives students agency to achieve their educational goals.”
The features of Tutor.com include:
- 24/7 online, on-demand access to expert tutors, 361 days of the year
- Expert tutors available in 200+ subjects, including English Language Arts, algebra, calculus, physics, chemistry, world languages, computer science, and more
- Tutors also available for Advanced Placement® and International Baccalaureate courses as well as PSAT®, SAT®, and ACT® prep
- Drop-off review of students’ writing assignments
- Spanish-speaking tutors for math, science, writing, social studies, and study skills subjects
- Individualized help available to reinforce student success study and life skills such as time management, stress management, and notetaking
- Test prep resources from The Princeton Review
Students will be able to access Tutor.com by signing into their Google accounts and clicking on the Tutor.com icon that will appear in the group of icons at the top of the screen commonly referred to as “the waffle.” Tutor.com will be available to students on the first day of classes, Thursday, September 7th.
The partnership is one of a number of District initiatives to make tutors available to students. For example, the District has had a longstanding partnership with Achieve Foundation in providing tutors to students.
About The School District of South Orange & Maplewood
The mission of the South Orange Maplewood School District is to empower and inspire each student to explore and imagine, to pursue personal passions, and to collectively create a better future by creating a learner-centered environment through multiple pathways; re-imagined structures, systems and supports; innovative teaching; partnering with families; and maximizing community expertise and resources.
About Tutor.com
Since its incorporation in 2000, Tutor.com has delivered more than 24 million one-to-one online tutoring and homework help sessions to students. The company’s more than 3,500 vetted and qualified tutors provide learning assistance that is available 24/7 in a wide array of subjects. The company’s mission is to instill hope, advance equity, and catalyze achievement in schools and communities. Tutor.com powers tutoring and homework help programs for the U.S. Department of Defense, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance Program, colleges and universities, K–12 school districts, state and local libraries, and companies offering employee benefit programs. Headquartered in New York City, Tutor.com is an affiliate of The Princeton Review, an education services company not affiliated with Princeton University. Follow Tutor.com on Twitter @tutordotcom, Facebook @TutorDotCom, and LinkedIn @Tutor.com.
AP® and SAT® are registered trademarks of the College Board, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse this product. All tests are registered trademarks of their respective owners. None of the trademark holders is affiliated with The Princeton Review or this product.
