English

Kia Childs, English 1
Ms. Childs joins the KIPP Renaissance High School team as ninth-grade English teacher.  Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ms. Childs graduated from Hampton University with a Bachelors degree in Marketing.  Armed with an Academic Achievers Scholarship, she held many leadership positions at Hampton, including the Director of Public Relations and Community Service for the Terpsichorean Dance Company and Vice President of Advertising and Marketing for the American Marketing Association.  Ms. Childs was a member of the Greer Dawson Wilson Student Leadership Program, as well.  In addition, Ms. Childs was a volunteer with the GEAR UP program in Newport News Public Schools and taught dance to approximately 60 students at Lindsey Middle School.  Deferring law school at Georgetown University in 2008, Ms. Childs instead joined Teach For America and the teaching staff of Lake Pontchartrain Elementary (a K-8 school in LaPlace, Louisiana), where she also coached cheerleading.  Under her tutelage, Ms. Childs’s seventh-grade students progressed an average of three points on the LEAP writing rubric and two grade levels in reading in a single year.  A member of the New Orleans Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Ms. Childs is a volunteer with Delta GEMS (Growing and Empowering Myself Successfully), a program that develops civic-, college- and career-minded young women.  Ms. Childs embraces the words of Anatole France, "Nine tenths of education is encouragement.”

Alysaa Quaranta, English 2

Ms. Quaranta is excited to join the KIPP Renaissance team as 10th grade English teacher. While attending Arizona State University she realized her passion for education while interning as a tutor for remedial readers at Camelback High School. Throughout the remaining two years of college she participated in multiple education internships at a wide variety of schools around the city. Ms. Quaranta completed her student teaching at Lincoln School in Costa Rica teaching 11th grade English and IB English. She has come to New Orleans through Teach For America and previously taught 10th grade English at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School where students achieved an 85% passing rate on the GEE and 94.7% passing the EOC. Ms. Quaranta looks forward to working hard with her students so that they can be successful in college and enjoy the benefits of becoming lifelong learners.