Transformative Principal

jethro_2_04-23-2025_143737: Welcome to Transformative Principle, where I help you stop putting out fires and start leading.

I'm your host, Jethro Jones.

You can follow me on Twitter at Jethro Jones.

Jethro D. Jones: Welcome to Transformative Principal.

I am very excited to have Dr. Sarah Ranney on the program today.

She is the executive director of Lafayette Preparatory Academy.

She's been there since 2014, and she's the proud parent to an LPA eighth grader.

She believes that every child has an inable right to attain an excellent education, no matter their economic status, location, or background.

She joined LPA after working as an instructional coach with.

Teach for America, and there's a whole bunch more to her, but she has an EDD in school administration as well as an educational specialist and master's in school admission administration from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, where I am working on mine.

She actually came and spoke to one of our classes and after talking to her I was like, man, she needs to be on Transformative principle.

So, um, we're gonna talk with her and, uh, Sarah, welcome to Transformative Principle.

Thanks for being here.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Thanks so much for having me.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah.

My pleasure.

So tell us first about Lafayette Preparatory Academy, um, and what, what makes it unique and different and what, what your is there as the executive director.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Well, I am incredibly biased on this particular topic, but, uh, Lafayette Preparatory Academy or LPA as we say, because, man, that's a mouthful for a name.

We are in our 12th year as a school.

We serve kids in St. Louis City in kindergarten through eighth grade.

When we opened, we served kids in kindergarten through second grade, and then we've grown a grade per year.

So our first graduating eighth graders we're in 2020, and this is my 11th year there.

Jethro D. Jones: That's pretty awesome.

So, um, it has always been a good school, right?

And, and you are making it even better.

You said, uh, I believe the quote is, LPA is killing it academically.

So talk to us about that.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Well, you know, I would say when you're founding a school, you have a vision of where it is it you wanna be.

And what we've done is just systematically work toward that vision and try to celebrate our successes along the way and ensure that we are continuing to find ways to get better and to, uh, continue to reach for what's next.

You know, a couple of our.

Theories and, and really our beliefs are one, in our school pledge it says, uh, I make mistakes so I can learn.

I learn so I can succeed and I succeed so I can help others.

I think we've really embraced that as a philosophy in our school as adults and children.

Um, but.

The, the whole reason that schools exist is to educate kids, and it sounds really silly and basic, but at the foundation of who we are and what it is that we're trying to do, we're trying to create a rigorous program for kids to excel and to do that, I think that you need to have a really strong academic program.

A really strong program to help with social emotional learning as well.

And how do those two things support each other so that you are helping to create well-rounded individuals?

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, that that is so important because it's.

It's not about only academics, and it's not about only social and emotional.

It's you have to be able to combine them.

It doesn't matter if you're a really good person, if you're dumb as a brick, and it doesn't matter if you're the smartest person in the world, if you're totally un ethical and a horrible person, and those are obviously extremes.

But even when there's a little bit of push in one way.

Uh, it can become unbalanced.

And have you seen that unbalanced in the past?

And, and what does that look like when it is unbalanced?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah, I think that imbalance can come, uh, in any school and, and we've certainly toggled with that ourselves.

I think at certain points we've shifted one way or the other.

When we were founding, we were really focused on establishing a really strong culture and creating this joyful, loving environment, and it was important.

It was absolutely important, but.

I think we realized pretty quickly that that couldn't be an absence of high expectations for learning and having a really strong academic program.

And then I think we pivoted a little bit too hard that way.

It was like, okay, we wanna have like really strong learning happening here at LPA and so we're gonna relentlessly focus on that.

And it was, um.

It was like somewhat jarring for staff and families to be like, whoa, you know, what happened to, like, we love everybody and we want people to be happy.

Um, and so I think now, you know, we're, we're striking that balance and we talk about creating a joyful community so that kids feel safe to learn.

And that is really important.

It's, it's, it is a both and you have to have, uh, the foundation for kids' safety and for.

To be joyful learning and then you could see where they go from there and really take it to the next level.

Jethro D. Jones: Uh, that's definitely important.

Um, so your school is a, uh, charter school, is that correct?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: We are, we're an independent public charter school, so that means there's not another one like us.

We are homegrown in St. Louis and, uh, we're, you know, we're a public charter.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah.

So you have this interesting, uh, thing also where you have what are called a catchment zones.

Um, tell me about that.

Because, uh, in my experience, I just haven't come across this before.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah, so a catchment zone is an area where you get preference to be enrolled in our school.

And you, um, many schools, many charter schools across the nation will have this.

Our school's mission is really about serving, uh, the inner core of St. Louis City.

And when we were founded, you know, there were certain neighborhoods that were like, okay.

At the time, there didn't exist another option besides the district public school.

And so our founders wanted to create.

Another option, another free option for families.

And um, when we first opened, of course, we weren't, uh, well known or popular.

And so, uh, kids could apply from all over the city and, and absolutely have a spot.

And, and anyone who lives in St. Louis City is eligible to attend our school.

But to meet that mission of having the community impact, you know, thinking about.

A small town school, but in the middle of St. Louis City where you have kids walking to and from school and um, you know, parents or neighbors, et cetera.

And so we created catchment zones so that the closer you live to the school, the higher your chances are of getting in.

It also helped to meet our mission, which we are diverse by design, school, by, and so we are looking to serve a diverse student population in our school, which is pretty, um.

When we were founded was pretty atypical in St.

Louis.

We're very racially segregated in our city and uh, so our school was really seeking to bridge the.

Jethro D. Jones: So, uh, does, does diverse by design mean that you are serving all of the black kids?

Or does diverse by design mean that you want some of everybody who lives in St. Louis.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah.

So I mean, diverse by design can mean a variety of things, but for us, what we're looking to do is we're, um, we're looking to serve the population that existed in our first catchment zone when we were founded.

Now that has changed over the time, um, but it's about socioeconomic status and race and.

Of course for very, very important reasons legally, you know, we're not doing anything related to enrollment and, and, uh, but our design elements are saying we're creating an environment for all kids.

I think what we commonly will see is that people tend to congregate towards people that are more similar to them, and that often aligns with race and class.

And so our school is aiming to create an environment that is authentically welcoming to all people.

Um, it also is looking at other elements of diversity, religious diversity.

For example, you know, we have grown a pretty strong and significant Muslim population in our school and it really started with a couple of families from a mosque who were like stumbled upon us and then spread the word to other families.

And pretty soon that really started to grow.

Um, so I don't know, does that answer your question?

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, I mean there sometimes we use, uh, coded language to say things that we.

people in the know really understand what we're saying.

And, and other times we, we say things because that's what we really believe.

And so that's what I was trying to, to get at.

So thank you for that.

Um, one of the things that you talked about in our class was this idea of, um, you didn't exercise where you asked people, what three words would you use to define our school?

Will you talk a little bit more about that question and what that means and how you, why you did that and what you, what that led to?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah, so I think that one of the most important things that we've done as we've grown this school is to solicit feedback all the time.

So we get feedback from our staff, from our students, from our families, but also from visitors who come into our building.

And one of my favorite questions to ask.

People, no matter which category of, of folks you qualify, if you're a guest or if you're a family or a student or a staff member, is.

Um, and especially love to do this with visitors as you're leaving our school today, what are three words that you would use to describe our school community?

So you'll see that question in our family survey that we give out twice a year.

You'll see that in our staff surveys.

And then, um, when we have visitors in, I'll give a survey and ask for their feedback after their visit.

And you'll see that question there too.

And then I take all of these words and I put 'em in a word cloud generator and then see what pops up and like what are the words that really resonate with.

Are part of our community, even if they're only part of our community for an hour long visit.

And that to me is really helping us define whether or not we're meeting our mission.

And so things like community and joy frequently come out as like the big bubble word that you're seeing in these word clouds and.

That's what we're hoping to see.

So when we're seeing like the elements of our core values popping up in this word cloud, to me that's speaking to our mission is living and breathing.

It's not just something we're giving voice to.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, I, I love that.

And what, what's so good about that is that it really limits what people can.

Can say you only have three words.

So if it's more than that, like you miss the point and, but it also makes it so that you get a good idea of what is actually resonating.

And a lot of times we say the things that we want to be there, but they don't actually, I. Exist.

Like, we're, we're so aspirational in our vision that nobody can see how it's actually happening.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Mm-hmm.

Jethro D. Jones: and that's unfortunate, but you're, you're seeing that those things are coming up again and again, which I think is, is really powerful.

you also talked about your, Parent survey that you do and how you have good family support and involvement.

Now, all charter schools seem to have better family support and involvement because people are choosing to go there.

But yours, you know, you mentioned that you get 80% of your families fill out the survey, but what does that.

Parent involvement look like and how do you, uh, encourage it, support it?

How do you, um, help families be involved in more than just, you know, the, the regular day-to-day stuff?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Well, I think it is, it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, that it isn't just about lip service.

It really is this idea that.

It really does take a village to raise a child.

And what our school's doing is creating a village for us to raise kids together in.

And so our founder, Dr. Susan Marino, who was also in my cohort at umsl, we completed our EDD together.

Um, she, when she started the school, her daughter was in our founding kindergarten class.

And you know, my son attends.

Our teacher's kids are there.

Our teacher's assistants kids are there.

We've had custodians kids there.

All of our staff members whose children are eligible to go to our school 'cause of their age and that they live in the city, we all send our kids to our school.

And so that is just a piece of investment and it helps also give you a specific lens into the parent experience as well.

And so you're, you are forming relationships with parents.

You know, my son, he's only there for 12 more days, but, um, you know, I've become friends with his friend's parents and their.

Very willing to tell me what they think about certain things, you know, when we're together.

I mean, when they were younger it was like together at the park for a play date.

And now of course it's a little bit different now that they're teenagers, but, um, it creates this true and authentic partnership and investment.

So we, we start every year with what we call an intake conference.

And.

It is where our teachers and you just every year, not just when you're a new family, 'cause you always have a new teacher, but our teachers are asking our parents questions to build relationship with them because nobody wants that first call to be challenging.

Nobody wants to like your kid really had a hard time today.

Um.

So it's, you know, who's important to your child, what are they interested in?

What goals do you have?

And our teachers are taking notes and, and building connections.

And we recognize that our parents, our families are our students first, uh, teachers and our families recognize that our teachers are spending.

A lot of hours with our kids and in some ways are seeing and knowing things that we will never know, um, because we're not with them in the classroom.

And so we've built this authentic connection point at the beginning of every year.

That we can then build upon.

Um, I think one of the most unique experiences and tests that we had was, was dealing with Covid and our students grew academically over the pandemic and that was pretty unheard of across the nation.

And I truly do think that that was because.

Of, of two things, but one is that partnership with parents.

And the other is that our staff was used to designing school, um, because we've been designing school since we opened.

And so it was, it was very intense of like redesigning school.

But um, both of those things played such a huge part.

And when you create opportunity for authentic partnership, uh, you can build upon that and create a culture.

And at that point, at this point in.

It is our culture.

It is, it is expected for families and it is expected for staff.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, I, I love that perspective, and you've talked about a lot of things that I, that I write about in my book, school X, about redesigning the school experience for the people that are actually there and how important that is.

And even if you're in a public school that you don't get as much say as you would in a charter school that you've started.

You still can redesign the school and, and be involved in that process.

And it's not impossible.

A lot of people think that it is, but it isn't.

It's, and it's really important.

Um, so the, the last thing that I, that I wanna dive into is this idea about, uh, what you said in our class was about how data.

Uh, personalizes and depersonalizes at the same time.

Talk about that and tell me your, your thoughts on that and then we'll have a little discussion about that.

'cause there's, so that was like this little aha for me that I was like, yes, that's exactly what is valuable about data is that it can be used both ways.

So talk about that a little bit.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah, well, we collect a lot of data at our school, and I do personally as well because it can help inform decisions.

And so the way that I think data can depersonalize things is you can analyze numerical data and see.

What your averages are, uh, you can look at comments and you can look for trends within them, and it can tell a story.

Now, of course, it's always interpreted by the person who's analyzing the data, but it also can help to.

Pinpoint something that maybe is unexpected, and I always ask our team and ask that of myself where I'm like, okay, some of data is anecdotal.

You know, my experience as an employee and as a parent in our school.

Absolutely influences how I feel about our school and what I think about the things that we are doing and what we should be doing as a result of that.

And that is also data.

And I think sometimes people forget that our personal experiences.

Influence us as well.

Um, and so I don't remember exactly what I was talking about in your class, but I think, you know, I think that that's the, the overall concept is that we do best service to both, um, look at concrete evidence and to discuss and analyze the, the like soft skills sort of data that you have that.

I think one example I would use is, uh, is evaluation.

So teacher evaluation or, or any kind of employee evaluation can be a hot button topic in schools, because our work is really personal in education and I. Our, we have three full-time coaches, and our coaches actually evaluate our teachers.

And some people are like, oh, like, why would you do that?

And, um, I, I said, well, the reason is because they are evaluating you.

They are coming in and observing and talking to you and forming an impression.

And so the person who writes your formal evaluation, in my mind.

Is the person who should have the most context in your practice.

Because we are constantly evaluating each other.

You and I are evaluating each other right now in this moment and forming an opinion about what we think of each other that is natural human experience.

Um, so I think again, like to be able to use both of those pieces and to inform your own opinion is where we can serve our school communities the best.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah.

Well, I'm glad you got into the idea about teachers being evaluated by the coaches, because you're right, a lot of people are like, gasp.

How can that be?

Only a principal can do that, but that's not necessarily the case and your justification of.

The person who knows them the best and spends the most time with them really should be the one doing that.

Um, does, does that mean that all of your teachers then get excellent marks on their evaluations?

I mean, 97% of teachers already do so, so that's typically the case anyway.

But how, how does that affect the growth and development of teachers when somebody is, uh, and when a coach is the one doing the evaluation?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Yeah.

I mean, no.

Our teachers all have areas of growth, as do I. Um, we all are working on growth goals every single year, and so I think that's one thing that we should name is just saying, if you think that you are operating perfectly, you know where to grow, then you probably should get out of whatever field you're in, uh, whether that's education or something else.

Because I think the moment we stop learning is pretty detrimental to.

Anything that we are involved with.

So, you know, our, what I would say is we did the model where when I was principal, we tried it, um, a year, maybe two, but I think it was only one year where I was evaluating all the teachers.

And I would get into teachers' classrooms more often than I had ever been evaluated as a teacher.

And it didn't feel authentic.

And I actually think that sometimes, uh.

I'm so sorry.

My alarm for dismissal went off.

Jethro D. Jones: We'll just, we'll just cut that part out, or

Dr. Sarah Ranney: So sorry.

Jethro D. Jones: That's okay.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Well, I'm trying not to make a hard editing situation for you, but anyway, um, okay.

So with, uh, with evaluation, what I was thinking is that I think our teachers felt more often that there was a gotcha moment because there hadn't been the opportunity to give.

Corrective feedback and then supportive feedback and support growth versus when our coaches are in the room, you know, our coaches are observing.

Some of our teachers are observing several times a week.

Some of them, they're going in and co-teaching with them.

Sometimes they're going in and, and watching another class with the teacher, and so they're getting this constant feedback and our coaches are very intimately aware of what each teacher's growth goals are and they're helping them grow.

That is, that is the goal.

Nobody wants gr like bad teachers in schools.

You know, we want teachers to be awesome, to feel supported and ultimately to grow from coaching.

Practice.

I think in a lot of other fields, you know, you're going in and you've got your colleagues and I am picturing a lot of my friends, you know, are working in offices or working in cubicles or even in our modern world where we're having Zoom conversations all the time.

Um, and teachers are with kids most of the time.

So this relationship with the coach can be so important both in support and helping push their growth and development.

And when you pair both of those things, I think teachers.

Feel safe to be able to take risks and feel like the person that is evaluating them has the best context for where they started the year when we get to the end of the year.

'cause that's when evaluation should capture.

It should capture the growth.

And again, I think everybody, no matter what year you are in your practice, um, should be growing over the course of the year.

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, I, I love that.

You know, one of the principals that I am coaching right now, uh, mentioned that she has a teacher and, uh, she just did not have the time to give her the support that she needed and not seen the growth because.

She didn't have the time to support her, and she has a coach, but she, she had something very specific that she wanted this teacher to get better at, that she knew how to do, and it just became a time issue that she didn't have the time to go coach that teacher up.

How she should have and her experience.

And your experience with having the, um.

the coaches do evaluation just solidified that in my mind, that there's a better way to do it and, and you can make adjustments and change and, and do different things.

So I, I just appreciate that so much and it's, it's great to hear people doing things differently and saying, you know, just because everybody else does it this way doesn't mean that we have to also, my last question, Sarah, is what is one thing that a principal can do this week to be a Transformative leader like you?

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Um, I think that one thing that a principal could do this week to be a Transformative leader is to ask for feedback and to be willing to be vulnerable to respond to that feedback.

And that is the thing that has helped me grow beyond any other experience I have had is to.

Hear the feedback to sort of depersonalize it for myself, because I'm, I'm always like, oh, they're not talking about me, Sarah.

They're talking about Dr. Randy, this person, um, this like vision of what it is that they think a principal is.

And to be open to change because of that feedback.

Even if all you're changing is the way you're communicating, uh, that can have a profound impact.

I got feedback routinely that my teachers didn't think I was in their classroom enough.

And I was like, I can't believe it.

I'm like, I'm in there every week.

And uh, and so I was just like, I have to hear this.

And so the only thing I changed in my practice was I started going in to classrooms and I would sit, when I went into the classroom instead of just walking around, I would go in and I would sit.

I was in there the same amount of time, and then after I left, I would leave a sticky note that just said, thank you so much for having me in your classroom.

You know, generally like something happy and suddenly I was not getting that feedback anymore and those are the only two things I changed.

So sometimes it is about interpreting what the feedback is, but really being able to dial in and, and, and take a step forward and say, and acknowledge like, this feedback's coming from somewhere and it's not meant to cause harm.

So how can I grow from it?

Jethro D. Jones: Yeah, that's really good.

Um, I, I especially like that because, you, it, it's one thing to ask for feedback.

It's another thing to be vulnerable to receive it and putting on a different hat that.

You know, there's, there's Sarah, the person who can get offended and hurt.

And then there's Dr. Ranney, the leader who needs to be able to be as effective as possible, just like anybody in their job needs to be as effective as possible.

That's really good.

Uh, this was awesome.

Thank you so much for being part of Transformative Principal.

I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me and, and share your experience and this was just fantastic.

So thank you.

Dr. Sarah Ranney: Well for asking me and to all the principals out there listening, I wish you luck.

You're not it alone.

And it's.