Dorothy Peters began her teaching career in 1972 as the only open classroom teacher in a traditional public school on Chicago's south side. Nine years later she joined the faculty of Central Park East One, an alternative public school in New York City's East Harlem, under its founder and then-director Deborah Meier. Currently, Peters is a supervisor of student teachers enrolled in pre-K through sixth-grade placements, the preservice Master's degree program at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City.