By Suzanne Vanderhoef
According to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, students of color on average score lower on college admissions tests. That in turn contributes to a large racial gap in college enrollment, especially in more competitive, selective schools.
But one local woman is working to change that by creating a tutoring platform specifically designed for minority students, called “Top Tutors for Us”.
“Top Tutors for us is a platform that empowers students, specifically minority students on standardized tests,” explains founder and CEO Angelica Harris. “Our mission is to close the racial standardized testing gap.”
Research shows that when underrepresented students have instructors and tutors who look like them, that helps close that gap. And when black students have one or more black teachers, their graduation rates actually increase by more than a third. Because of that, besides assessing students’ English, math and writing skills, the company also connects students with tutors who share their cultural backgrounds.
“The tutoring is amazing,” says Aubrey Smith, an 11th grader who has taken part in Top Tutors for us coaching. “It is tutors that look just like us. We could connect with us personally and they actually help us feel seen and heard. So it was more on a deeper level than just learning the basics of what we actually need.”
And it seems to be working. Harris says students typically see around a six to eight point increase on their ACT scores after taking the course.
But, students aren’t the only ones benefitting. As an Arch Grant recipient and a 2025 Global Impact Award finalist, founder Harris is making a powerful difference—helping nearly 1,000 students in just two and a half years.
“I actually pitched Top Tutors for Us to the St. Louis Public school board and they were really excited about, wow, this is super cool,” she says. “Our students actually get instructors and tutors who look like them and they’re building their academic skills and increasing their test scores. This is a win-win situation. We really want to pilot this.”
Her next goal for Top Tutors: To be in thousands of schools and to reach hundreds of thousands of students.
