Reader's Choice Works

What Reader's Choice Works does

Reader's Choice Works is a literacy-focused professional development and consulting firm serving K-12 school districts in Minnesota. Founded in 2012 by Heather Casella, the company delivers on-site workshops and training programs centered on foundational reading instruction, guided reading, and small-group literacy practices. Headquartered in Champlin, Minnesota, the firm has served at least nine named school districts, including Osseo, Cambridge-Isanti, Royalton, Tracy, Pierz, Medford, Cloquet, Maple Lake, and Norman County East, with all engagements delivered within the state.

The core offering is structured workshop delivery, with curricula spanning Foundations of Reading, guided reading implementation, and small-group reading instruction. The methodology is codified in the founder's book, "Creating Readers One Book at a Time," which functions as a published reference for the consulting practice. The company has no proprietary software, technology platform, or digital product line; the value proposition is the founder's instructional expertise and frameworks, delivered through in-person training engagements. Reader's Choice Works operates as a sole proprietorship with no external funding, equity rounds, or institutional investors disclosed.

Revenue is generated through per-workshop and per-engagement fees paid by school districts. The company maintains free downloadable resources as a marketing and lead-generation tool, but does not appear to operate a recurring content publishing, subscription, or licensing business. Scale is tightly bounded by the founder's personal delivery capacity, given the 1-10 employee count and the workshop-based, in-person service model. There is no public evidence of geographic expansion beyond Minnesota, no disclosed hiring plan, and no M&A or partnership activity, indicating a stable but small-scale consulting practice rather than a high-growth operation.

Name

Reader's Choice Works

Legal name

Reader's Choice Works

Website

https://readerschoiceworks.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Reader's Choice Works is a Minnesota literacy consulting firm that delivers on-site professional development workshops to K-12 school districts. Founded in 2012 by Heather Casella, the company trains teachers in foundational reading instruction using the founder's published methodology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Consulting and Professional Development Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Literature & Book Clubs / Guided Reading Groups (EDAMAJAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

K–12 Remedial Reading & Literacy Intervention (EDANAJAA), Teacher Editions, Lesson Plans & Classroom Resources (EDAGAAAI)

Keywords

• Literacy professional development
• K-12 reading workshops
• Teacher training services
• School literacy consulting
• Reading intervention programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Champlin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Professional Development Workshops: Heather Casella provides on-site professional development to K-12 schools throughout Minnesota. Workshops are offered in various lengths (6 hours full-day, 2-3 hours abbreviated) and target teachers, administrators, and support staff. Revenue is generated through workshop fees charged to school districts.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Reader's Choice Works provides on-site literacy professional development and consulting to K-12 schools and districts. The company sells structured workshops (full-day six-hour sessions and abbreviated two-to-three-hour sessions) that train teachers to implement a choice-based reading workshop model, including the Book-a-Week Choice Novel Unit and Sacred Reading Monday programs. Heather Casella also delivers supplementary presentations for students and parents and supplies curated book lists and implementation resources.

Product overview

Reader's Choice Works is a literacy consulting company founded by Heather Casella in 2012, providing professional development workshops and programs for K-12 educators. The core offering is the Reader's Choice Workshop methodology, which includes the Book-a-Week Choice Novel Unit and Sacred Reading Monday program. These are complemented by a suite of on-site staff development workshops including 'I Won't Read, and You Can't Make Me!', 'Creating K-6 Grade Readers One Book at a Time', 'Engaging All Readers through Standards-Based Literacy Instruction', 'Stealing Minutes' school-wide literacy initiatives, and 'For the Last Time, Put Your Cell Phone Away!' classroom management workshops. Additional offerings include 'Read for Your Life' and 'All School Read' programs for students, parent workshops, and free downloadable resources including reading charts, rubrics, and posters. The company also maintains curated book lists for teen readers including culturally relevant selections.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Reader's Choice Workshops Professional development workshops for middle and high school English and Reading teachers covering choice-based reading motivation strategies, culturally relevant book selection, and classroom implementation techniques.
• On-Site Staff Development Comprehensive professional development delivered at schools, including workshops for teachers, building-wide initiatives, and sessions for students and parents covering literacy motivation and classroom management strategies.
• "I Won't Read, and You Can't Make Me!" Workshop Six-hour workshop for Reading and English teachers grades 7-12 focused on implementing a choice-based reading program, motivating reluctant readers, and helping students read one book per week.
• "Creating K-6 Grade Readers One Book at a Time" Workshop Two-to-three-hour workshop for elementary teachers and support staff focused on fostering reading motivation through student choice and parent involvement.
• "Engaging All Readers through Standards-Based Literacy Instruction" Workshop Interactive workshop on Common Core State Standards covering reading comprehension, text complexity, informational texts, and thematic unit creation.
• "Stealing Minutes" School-Wide Literacy Initiative Two-to-three-hour school or district-wide presentation teaching how to implement reading time throughout the school day, including poster templates and ongoing email support.
• "For the Last Time, Put Your Cell Phone Away!" Workshop Three-hour workshop for teachers grades 7-12 on positive classroom management strategies, reducing power struggles, and creating respectful, responsible, and relaxed learning environments.
• "Read for Your Life" Presentation Sixty-minute motivational presentation for students grades 3-8 on becoming better readers and how reading impacts their future.
• "All School Read" Program Program where Heather selects a high-interest book for grades 3-6, with all teachers reading aloud the same chapters daily to ignite excitement about literature.
• "Hey Mom and Dad...I Won't Read, and You Can't Make Me!" Parent Workshop Ninety-minute presentation for parents on motivating children to read, based on Heather's daughter's MCA score improvement from 56th to 98th percentile through independent reading.
• Sacred Reading Monday Program Dedicated weekly reading time where all students read for the entire class period without interruptions, used to build reading stamina and habits.
• Book-a-Week Choice Novel Unit Structured reading program where students read approximately 10 books per trimester, designed to show a year's growth in comprehension in one term.

Quantifiable outcome

• Students reading 900,000 words/year (30 books) grow 3-5 grade levels in one year
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Cris Tovani: Literacy consultant and author who delivers on-site professional development for K-12 teachers focused on comprehension, engagement, and assessment. Directly comparable business model and customer segment.
• Penny Kittle: Independent literacy consultant and author working with K-12 teachers on choice-based reading and writing instruction. Operates a similar solo-consultant, workshop-driven model and serves overlapping secondary ELA customers, making it the most directly comparable peer.
• Kylene Beers: Independent literacy consultant and former teacher delivering professional development to secondary English teachers on reading engagement and intervention. Closely comparable in target audience, workshop format, and founder-led delivery.

Broad incumbents

• Solution Tree: Educational publishing and professional development company serving K-12 schools with on-site workshops and conferences. Comparable in on-site PD delivery but with a much broader K-12 portfolio beyond literacy.
• Scholastic Education: Large publisher offering literacy solutions, classroom libraries, and professional development services for K-12. A scaled incumbent competing for district literacy and reading engagement budgets.
• Heinemann: Major educational publisher (Fountas & Pinnell, Calkins) that bundles literacy professional development with its published curricula. Competes for the same district PD dollars but at much greater scale and with a larger portfolio.
• ASCD: Established K-12 educator association providing professional development, conferences, and publications across instructional topics including literacy. Competes for the same district PD dollars at association scale.

Emerging players

• Booksource: Distributor of classroom and library books with curated collections and literacy program support for K-12. Touches the same classroom-library and book-selection workflow that underpins Reader's Choice Workshops.
• Newsela: Ed-tech company providing differentiated reading content and instruction tools for K-12, with PD offerings for teachers. Comparable end-customer and literacy-outcome value proposition, delivered via a scalable platform rather than on-site workshops.
• CommonLit: Nonprofit ed-tech platform offering free reading passages, assessments, and PD for grades 3-12 literacy teachers. Competes for teacher time and literacy budget but at much greater scale and via digital delivery.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Reader's Choice Works