Tutoring in Newark, New Jersey
Kolu is software. Nobody from Kolu will drive to your house in Newark, 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.
Newark Public Schools enrolls through one application, Newark Enrolls, which opens in late October and closes in mid-January. Families rank schools and get a match letter in March, and nearly every eighth grader uses it to apply for high school, the magnet high schools included. Charter schools are a second route. Several of the larger charter networks left the shared system and take applications through their own, the Newark Common App. Essex County also runs vocational-technical high schools that Newark students can apply to.
State tests Newark students take
| Grade | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | Not tested | NJGPA-A | Not tested |
| Math | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | NJSLA-A | Not tested | Not tested | NJGPA-A | Not tested |
| Science | Not tested | Not tested | NJSLA Science | Not tested | Not tested | NJSLA Science | Not tested | Not tested | NJSLA Science | Not tested |
- NJSLA-A (New Jersey Student Learning Assessments-Adaptive): reading and writing, grades 3 through 9
- NJSLA-A: math, grades 3 through 8
- NJSLA Science (New Jersey Student Learning Assessment for Science): science, grades 5, 8 and 11
- NJGPA-A (New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment-Adaptive): reading and writing, math, grade 11
The substitute-test and portfolio routes to a diploma are open only to students who sat the NJGPA-A in eleventh grade, so a junior who skips the March test loses the fallbacks too. Retakes are offered the following summer and fall.
Testing dates and graduation rules for the whole state are on a separate page. New Jersey 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 NJSLA-A. 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 East Orange, Irvington, Elizabeth, Bloomfield, Belleville and Harrison as it does in Newark.
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 Newark, ask the school first. Teachers know who tutors, and a counselor at Newark Public Schools can tell you what the district already offers at no cost. After that, try students at Rutgers University-Newark, New Jersey Institute of Technology or Essex County College, 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.