Learn Like Me
A student-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit · Indianapolis, Indiana
Learn Like Me
200+ high school students tutoring and mentoring elementary schoolers in under-resourced Indianapolis schools — every single week.
The question we started with
What if a child's ZIP code didn't decide what they could learn?
Right now, it does — measurably. Scroll through the numbers, from the whole country down to our own block.
Across the United States
$2,700
less per student. That's how much state and local funding school districts serving the most Black, Latino, and Native students can receive compared with districts serving the fewest students of color.
Source: EdTrust, Equal Is Not Good Enough (2022), U.S. Census school finance data.
For Black students
81%
of Black students graduate high school on time, compared with 90% of White students — and the gap exists in every single state.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Condition of Education 2024 (class of 2021–22, public schools).
Here in Indiana
20 points
That's the gap on Indiana's third-grade reading exam: 68.6% of Black third graders passed in 2024, versus 88.3% of White third graders — in the one skill that predicts everything after.
Source: Indiana Department of Education / State Board of Education, 2024 IREAD-3 results.
In Indianapolis classrooms
26%
of Marion County students in grades 3–8 were proficient in English/language arts on the 2025 ILEARN — versus 40.6% statewide. This is where we live, and where we work.
Source: WFYI, reporting on 2025 ILEARN results (July 2025), district and charter schools.
So every week, in our classrooms
Numbers like these are why we show up.
We can't rewrite school funding formulas. But we can sit down next to a third-grader with a book, a worksheet, and an hour of undivided attention — week after week, all school year. Research says that kind of consistent tutoring works. Our students say it louder.
Our impact since 2021
Small hands. Big numbers.
student members
trained tutors
service hours in Indiana, every year
founded by students, for students
What we do
Weekly, in person, and side by side. Our tutors travel to partner elementary schools in Indianapolis and stay for the whole school year.
Tutor
One-on-one and small-group help with reading, writing, and math — matched to what each student's teacher says they need most.
Mentor
The same tutors come back every week. For many of our students, that consistency is the point: someone older who shows up, remembers, and believes in them.
Educate
Back at our own schools, we teach our peers about the educational disparities students of color face — and how to become catalysts for change.
From one of our students
“Lovable. Outgoing. Vibrant. Exciting. Thank you for all you have done for us.”
This work takes students who show up. Be one of them.
Join as a tutor, bring Learn Like Me to your school, or partner with us as an educator.