About the Instructor

Denise Ensign is the instructor at Kumon of Redmond - Downtown

Denise celebrates her 17th year as a Kumon Instructor in 2024. After having the privilege of observing many students start their Kumon journey as a preschooler and continue their studies to program completion as middle schoolers, she is and will always be a firm believer in the power of long term study in Kumon.

Denise is very proud of what the students at her Center accomplish every day. A small sample of the success of her students, who have completed the Math Program, include: graduates from Duke University, Stanford and many other excellent universities. Another student who scored 100% on the MCAT. She now has a total of five students who have been accepted into the Robinson Center Program at the University of Washington, where they began taking college classes when they were only freshmen in high school. One has since graduated from UofW with a BS in Computer Science at the age of 19. Most Math Program completers have scored 100% on the SAT, Reading program completers are scoring in the high 700s. All have said that taking the SAT was like doing their Kumon because they had learned the concepts tested on the SAT while doing their daily Kumon.

Denise is just as proud of her students who initially came to Kumon because they were challenged by their math and/or reading. After making the commitment to study Kumon, and initially being allowed to step back as far as needed to fix what wasn't working, these same students have come to realize they now enjoy doing what they used to feel was overwhelming.  She is happily helping elementary students that struggled with reading when she met them, who have since become voracious readers.  

Denise does her best to help parents understand that Kumon is not a short-term fix, but a long-term solution. This is because the skills and abilities children need for successful high school and college study take time to develop.

Denise has a passion for her students and an earnest desire to help all children not only succeed, but excel in life.

Denise is a Certified Kumon Instructor. This means to become a takeover instructor of the Redmond Center in 2008, she had to go through extensive training to understand how the Kumon worksheets develop the skills and abilities in students as they progress through the program.

Denise is a firm believer that there is always still something to learn about developing stronger, more confident students as they progress through the Kumon programs. It is because of this mindset, she takes advantage of every continuing education opportunity Kumon offers, from monthly instructor meetings, attending annual Instructor Conferences, center study tours, and just as importantly networking with other instructors.

In 2021-22, Denise happily volunteered to become a pilot study instructor when Kumon was working to redevelop the AI to CII Reading Levels that were released in 2023. Her participation gave Kumon University important feedback on where the redesigned worksheets needed tweaks to enable younger students to be able to study above grade level with more ease and confidence.