A growing and significant body of research suggests that students benefit from having a teacher of the same race or ethnicity. Yet most teachers in the U.S. are white women.
St. Louis entrepreneur Angelica Harris knows the effects of diversity in education firsthand. It wasn’t until she attended college at Washington University that she had her first Black teacher.
“He became a mentor to me,” she said. “I felt that if he can do it, I can do it.”
Harris founded the test prep and K-12 tutoring company Top Tutors for Us in 2022 to pair Black students with tutors who look like them, have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, similar upbringings or similar interests.
“It's so important for students to have instructors who relate to them,” Harris said. “It's a confidence builder, especially for young people, when they have role models in their lives.”
Black students who had two or more Black teachers are 32% more likely to enroll in college, according to National Bureau of Economic Research data. Harris said students are also more likely to have higher school attendance rates and receive scholarships when they learn from teachers of similar backgrounds.
Top Tutors for Us reports that the share of students who scored more than 20 on the ACT increased from 5% to 34% after completing their ACT prep program.
“When we see students get into their dream colleges or receive scholarship money — that just fills my heart,” Harris said.
Most of the 13 schools that Top Tutors for Us partners with are Title 1 schools, so more than 90% of the students they serve come from disadvantaged communities across the country.
“Around 70% of our students are first-gen [college students]. That's a big reason why I founded [Top Tutors for Us],” Harris said, “so these students can have a more personalized, tailored touch.”
Looking forward, Harris plans to establish partnerships with more schools, nonprofits and college-bound organizations. She also wants to utilize artificial intelligence.
“This is an AI world now, and so we see generative AI playing a factor in our lesson building for students [and] our cultural competency matching.”
To learn more about Angelica Harris’ story and the effects of cultural competency in education, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, or click the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
