Tutoring in Hartford, Connecticut
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Hartford, and we have no office there. If you want a person, this page says how we would look for one. If the question is which skill is missing, we can help with that part.
School choice in Hartford runs through two separate applications. Hartford Public Schools has its own District Choice process, which places city students in district schools within their residency zone. The state's Regional School Choice Office runs a second lottery at ChooseYourSchool.org. That one covers interdistrict magnet schools, technical high schools and Open Choice seats in suburban districts. The regional system grew out of the Sheff v. O'Neill desegregation case, and the Capitol Region Education Council operates many of its magnets. For the 2026-27 year the regional application closed in early February.
State tests Hartford students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Connecticut SAT School Day | Not tested |
| Math | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Smarter Balanced | Not tested | Not tested | Connecticut SAT School Day | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | NGSS Assessment | Not tested | Not tested | NGSS Assessment | Not tested | Not tested | NGSS Assessment | Not tested |
- Smarter Balanced (Connecticut Smarter Balanced Assessment): reading and writing, math, grades 3 through 8
- NGSS Assessment (Next Generation Science Standards Assessment): science, grades 5, 8 and 11
- Connecticut SAT School Day: reading and writing, math, grade 11
The school-day SAT is early. Each high school chooses its date between March 1 and April 30, 2027, so a junior can be sitting it in the first week of March.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. Connecticut guide
Kolu finds the missing skill and goes back to it
It starts with a skill check, a short test that gets harder or easier depending on the last answer. The result is a map of the subject broken into skills with their prerequisites drawn in, each one marked as solid, still being learned, or a gap.
After that, each session is a handful of activities picked for that student, usually something due for review, a gap to repair and one new skill. When an answer is wrong, Kolu looks at which earlier skill the mistake points to and goes back to it. Here is what that looks like for a sixth grader who can't divide fractions.
The problem on the page
3/4 ÷ 2/5
Dividing fractions
Grade 6
Multiplying fractions
Grade 5 · rests on the one below
Equivalent fractions
Grade 4 · usually where it started
Multiplication facts
Grade 3
Kolu does not call a skill mastered after one right answer. That takes correct work on different kinds of problems on different days, and a skill that fades gets brought back.
Kolu is not test prep for Smarter Balanced. It has no bank of released questions. It teaches the skills the test draws on, and it will not do tonight's homework.
It runs in a browser, so it works the same in West Hartford, East Hartford, Wethersfield, Windsor, Bloomfield and Newington as it does in Hartford.
When to hire a person instead
Some students need a person, and software is the wrong purchase for them. That includes a child who shuts down when the work gets hard, a student with a learning disability who needs someone trained in it, and anyone with an exam in ten days.
In Hartford, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Hartford Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at Trinity College, University of Hartford or University of Connecticut Hartford, who took these courses recently and usually charge less than an agency.
Whoever you hire, ask one question before the first session: how will you find out what my child doesn't know? If the answer is that they will go over the homework, keep looking.
Free for one subject, $15 a month for 5
Kolu is free for one subject at a time, with one full skill check every 30 days and up to 4 sessions a day. Plus is $15 a month, or $120 for a year, and covers 5 subjects at once with unlimited skill checks. A learner under 13 needs a parent or guardian to set up the account.