Carolyn Emma Ridout began her career in 1968 upon graduation from State
University of New York at Cortland with a Bachelor of Science degree in
Elementary Education and English Literature. Her first teaching experience
began in January 1968 in Marathon, New York as a 6th grade teacher. It
was a great challenge for the classroom was housed in a former funeral
home while a new building was being built. She taught 6th grade
in Marathon for a year and a half and completed her Master's Degree at
SUNY - Cortland in Language Arts in 1970. After her move to
North Carolina during the summer of 1969, she continued her professional
education at Duke University and University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill over the years. From 1969- 1985, Carolyn taught and was a reading
specialist in several different schools with Durham County Schools.
In 1985 she completed an advanced degree program in administration and
supervision at the University of North Carolina. At this point she accepted
an assistant principal ship with Durham County Schools. For the next four
years she was an assistant principal in two different schools. Both of
these schools had totally different student populations and locations.
In 1989 she was named principal of Mangum Primary Center in Bahama. For
the next five years she led the staff from a small rural school to a school
that was part of a large urban school system that was going through a merger
of two systems. In 1994 she was named principal of Club Boulevard Elementary
School. The first year with staff members and parents, the school developed
a school governance model, a magnet school plan that was funded by the
federal government and wrote a curriculum that focused on the magnet school
themes: humanities through authentic literature and the arts. Club has
become one of Durham's successful magnets reaching its diversity and academic
achievement goals. The school has achieved Exemplary Status for two years
from the State of North Carolina and was named one of the Top 15 Magnet
Schools in the US by Magnet Schools of America in May of 1999.
Mrs. Ridout has provided inservice in the area of Literacy Development,
Multiple Intelligence, and Paraprofessional Training for North Carolina
Central University, Wake County Schools and Durham County Schools. She
has been a conference speaker at the NC IRA Conference, NC Assessment
Conference, Magnet School Conferences, and NC Year- Long School Conference
in the areas of Authentic Assessment, Multiple Intelligence, Integrated
Instruction, and Improving Student Achievement in an Inner City Magnet
School.
As a 32 year veteran in education her passion is still children being literate
life long learners who view the world as an exciting place full of opportunities
to learn, work and play.