Carole Richards

Carole Richards has been dedicated to improving literacy from her first teaching job in the Cleveland Public Schools. In 1985, she founded North Coast Education Services in her dining room with a $200 bankroll. Today, the company has a staff of more than 300 degreed, professional, and trained tutors. It provides tutoring for individuals and offers literacy programs for businesses and social service agencies. Children and adults are tutored in reading, writing, math, study skills, SAT and ACT test preparation.
In 1992, Carole formed the not-for-profit Creative Education Institute (CEI). Its mission is to affect change through improved literacy. CEI developed and ran the successful A to Z Welfare to Work Program in Cuyahoga County for nearly five years. CEI ran a 6-week Academic Fun & Fitness Day Camp each summer for children with learning differences for sixteen years. The camp included reading, math, theater arts, science, art, service dog training, and many other activities. Funding was provided by various school districts and prominent Cleveland-area foundations. CEI provided teacher-training workshops in Richards Learning Systems to urban school districts.
Richards Learning System (RLS) was written by Carole over a two-year period and refined over three decades. It is a systematic and multi-sensory approach to language arts, and counts many student successes. Statistical data about RLS developed by Case Western Reserve University and other research organizations showed dramatic skills improvement among at risk students. The program has been introduced to numerous schools and districts, including the special education teachers and students in the Euclid City Schools, the fifth largest urban school in Ohio.
Carole is recognized as an education innovator in developing skills for students with special learning needs. She provides in-service programs and workshops for teachers, featuring RLS and other topics. She is a literacy consultant to parents and schools.
Based on the Science of Reading, Carole developed Sammy and the Magical Reading Chest. A 77 episode video series that trains the teacher or parent at the same time the children learn to read. With puppets, animation and children, they learn to read with five to seven minute episodes. Students have the same multi-sensory materials modeled in the videos. Students start with the sound of short a, then t forming “at”. By episode 77 they are decoding the word “antidisestablishmentarianism”. The “Sammy” Program is a new delivery model of the RLS systematic phonics program.
A graduate of Miami University of Ohio, Carole held teaching positions in several Cleveland-area schools. She garnered extensive teaching experience in the classroom working with at risk students. She is active in several service organizations. Carole lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and her daughter, Linnea, is now her partner in the business.