Katherine Bassett serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Tutoring Corps (NJTC), an nonprofit organization that provides literacy and math tutoring for scholars in grades k-8. A secondary focus of NJTC is to train excellent tutors, some of whom may choose to advance into careers in education.
Throughout her professional career, Bassett has advocated for students to receive the highest-quality of education regardless of their zip code or family circumstances.
Bassett spent 26 years in the classroom as a middle school librarian, winning two New Jersey Best Practices Awards for whole-school reading programs and four New Jersey PRIDE awards for equity-based learning. She was named New Jersey’s State Teacher of the Year 2000, and served as President and CEO of the National Network of State Teachers of the Year.
At Educational Testing Service, Bassett led the development of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificates for Library Media and for Literacy. She facilitated the development of performance-based assessments in four states and worked with six states to develop a common professional continuum of educator practice. Bassett served as Director of Policy and Partnerships for the Center for Educator Effectiveness at Pearson, working to support research into educator practice and self-efficacy and envisioned and led the development of the Teacher Leader Model Standards, now used in over 20 countries, and co-led development of the Model Code of Ethics for Educators.