Denise Garrett-Dowers

Denise Garrett-Dowers has been an educator for over thirty years, twenty seven of those years with the New York City Department of Education. During her tenure with the DOE, Ms. Garrett-Dowers has served as a classroom teacher, staff developer and literacy coach for k-6 teachers. She has led multiple, interactive workshops for teachers and parents, with the goals of helping struggling readers to improve, developing reading workstations to reinforce classroom skills and strategies, differentiating instruction in order to provide targeted teaching for all students, and providing helpful tips for parents in order to maximize their children's learning.

Some of Ms. Garrett-Dowers other responsibilities have been analyzing assessment data with teachers to properly group and move students forward as well as identifying and providing intervention for struggling readers. She has led Reading Academy, an in-house course for kindergarten through third grade teachers, focusing on the five essential components students need to become successful readers.  This program was funded through The Reading First state grant program.  Ms. Garrett-Dowers earned both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Early Childhood Education from Brooklyn College.