Academic Equity & Enrichment
Academic Equity & Enrichment
Not only concerned with breaking down barriers to learning, Little Bit seeks to empower under-resourced students by providing access to educational tools, experiences and curriculum not readily available to them.
Little Bit distributed over 50,000 books through our literacy programs in the 2021-22 school year.
1-2-3 Read!
Two-thirds of low-income families have virtually no reading material in the home, creating vocabulary gaps that persist through each grade. Our 1-2-3 Read! program brings book fairs to every partner school once per semester, during which each student can select two age-appropriate books to keep. While waiting to choose their books, students are read stories by Little Bit volunteers. The goals of our 1-2-3 Read! program are to help build each student’s in-home library, and increase their engagement with and love for reading.
Books & Buddies
Children who do not read proficiently by 3rd grade are 4x more likely to leave school. Our Books & Buddies program supports early literacy by bringing an element of comfort and security for children as they begin to read. The Books & Buddies kits contain learner or beginner level books paired with a stuffed animal relating to the story and are designed to be used in the classroom for reading time, engaging in a specific book as a whole class, or as an addendum to classroom curriculum. Students are able to take their Book & Buddy home at the end of the semester.
First Lego League
Many of the students we serve do not have meaningful exposure to STEM or understand how it can be applicable to their everyday lives. Funded in part by the Josh Seidel Memorial Foundation, we are pleased to bring First Lego League to several Little Bit schools. First Lego League is an international competition for elementary and middle school students involving designing and programming Lego Education robots to complete tasks.
Academic Tutoring
Our tutoring program is offered for students struggling in math and reading, in partnership with Saint Louis University and Oasis Tutoring. Volunteer tutors work one-on-one with students on a regular basis, with the goal of helping them improve test scores and overall performance in these core subjects.