Teach For America alumnae Annemarie Ketterhagen and Andrea Nickels are working relentlessly to close Milwaukee's achievement gap, which they say is one of the largest in the nation.

Ketterhagen is the academic dean of the Milwaukee Renaissance Academy, a new charter school located at 2212 N. 12th St. that had its grand opening this August. Ketterhagen said the main goal of the academy is to address the needs of urban education by focusing on closing the achievement gap between urban and suburban schools.

"Closing the achievement gap is about providing all students with a quality education," Ketterhagen said, adding that the academy guarantees all students a college acceptance letter after completing their schooling.

According to Ketterhagen, the school is not only an intense academic environment that places a strong emphasis on foundational skills in reading and math, but it also focuses on developing the whole student by offering classes such as ballroom dancing and Arabic.

Ketterhagen, who participated in Teach For America from 2003-'05, said her experience teaching eighth-grade English in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood helped foster her commitment to improving urban education.

"I think my experience really allowed me to push myself in ways I wouldn't have otherwise," she said. "It really inspired me to look for ways to make a positive systematic change."

Nickels, a social studies teacher at the academy, said she agreed that Teach For America is "a wonderful organization."

Nickels was ready to go to graduate school for international economics when she got her Teach For America acceptance letter. She said the fact that she has now chosen teaching as her career path is a direct result of her experiences at her placement school in Miami.

As far as working at the academy is concerned, Nickels said it is very similar to her experience with Teach For America.

"The Milwaukee Renaissance Academy provides a lot of support for its teachers, much like Teach For America," Nickels said. "There's also a very collaborative effort between the teachers themselves."

The Milwaukee Renaissance Academy, as a charter school, is not part of the Milwaukee Public School system.

Phil Harris, MPS Media Manager, said MPS does not participate in Teach For America, and none of the current teachers within the system have been hired out of the program.

But Nickels said she thinks having Teach For America alumni working within a Milwaukee school is definitely an advantage. She said the biggest difference between the academy and other schools in Milwaukee lies in the academy's goal of making sure every student is being served.

"(Ketterhagen) was definitely looking to hire individuals who had experience in educating in an urban environment," Nickels said, noting Ketterhagen actually found her within a Teach For America database. "While our school does focus on high standards of achievement, our staff realizes the need to be sensitive to particular issues a student may be going through outside of the classroom."