The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Culture as a New School Principal | Transformational Educators Ep. 32

New principals who prioritize systems over relationships risk cratering campus culture before improvement ever begins.

Dr. NaTasha Crain, first-time principal at Jones Elementary in Marshall ISD, learned this the hard way: inheriting a D-rated campus with $88 in the activity account and a devastating organizational health score of 4 out of 100. Rather than doubling down on compliance, she rebuilt trust through shared leadership, modeled vulnerability with her staff, and used a one-thing coaching model to grow teacher capacity one skill at a time. The result was a campus that climbed to a B rating and a 98 culture score, proving that relational intentionality, not just strong systems, is the real engine of school transformation.

Dr. Crain arrived at Jones Elementary mid-June with 14 vacancies out of roughly 27 to 30 staff positions, no campus handbook, and no master schedule. She filled every seat before the first day, then built a daily intervention block into the master schedule from scratch. Roughly 30 percent of third through fifth graders were two or more grade levels behind, so she layered Texas Instructional Leadership protocols and tools including MAP, iREADi, and Star Renaissance onto tier one instruction. Every three weeks her team reviewed individual student progress toward what she called a magic number, a specific question threshold on state assessments. She also hosted community job fairs, partnering with the Texas Workforce Center to place ten parents in jobs on site, directly connecting family stability to student readiness.

Listeners leave with a repeatable turnaround sequence: build a daily intervention block before anything else, assign every student a specific measurable growth target rather than a grade-level benchmark, and separate coaching observations from formal evaluations in writing so teachers risk vulnerability without risking their jobs. Dr. Crain's modeling of mistakes in PLCs, including openly admitting she was not a math expert, gave staff permission to practice and fail before students paid the cost. Her job fair model shows that family engagement need not require a budget, only creative partnerships. Each tactic connects back to the episode's core argument: relational trust is not a soft precondition to systems work, it is the mechanism that makes systems work.

Connect with NaTasha:
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Marshall ISD

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:19:15
Dr. NaTasha Crain
End of March begin April. She had a lightbulb moment. And so when we did, our focus would be the last three weeks before star. She really got in there and followed all the things, and it worked out and it was in her favor. And so her data ended well. And so she was ready to go for that next year as it continued to grow.

00:00:19:16 - 00:00:27:13
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I'm proud to say that last year she was the campus teacher of the year and was my top. When I left there. She was one of my top reading teachers.

00:00:27:16 - 00:00:49:19
Matthew Flippen
That's Doctor Natasha Crane, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction at Marshall ISD. She took Jones Elementary from a rating of D up to a rating of B. The culture score also jumped from four out of 100, all the way up to 98 out of 100. Relational intentionality, not systems alone, drove that transformation.

00:00:50:00 - 00:01:03:12
Dr. NaTasha Crain
We went from a forward to a nine to A from a D to a B. Writing it was just really staying true to your goals, really being intentional about our goals and monitoring those goals and making those adjustments along the way.

00:01:03:16 - 00:01:26:04
Matthew Flippen
In this episode, you'll learn why putting systems over relationships can crater campus culture, how shared leadership and modeled vulnerability moved one school forward, and why? The one thing coaching model builds teacher capacity, one skill at a time. I'm Doctor Matthew Flippen, and this is transformational educators.

00:01:26:06 - 00:01:48:08
Matthew Flippen
It's so great to have you. I mean, your leadership journey, you know, is one that really offers practical wisdom, for educators who are working with, you know, real challenges in schools. And so I know we're going to get to hear a little bit about your experience and how you grew during that time and how you served. And, and took your team, together, to, you know, a different, a different level.

00:01:48:08 - 00:02:01:19
Matthew Flippen
So I'm really, really excited to hear about that. If it's okay, let's start at the moment. When you arrived at Jones and just, was this your first principalship and what was it like? You know, when you, when you got there?

00:02:01:23 - 00:02:26:06
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So, yes, it was my first principalship. It was the first time that I really had an opportunity to step into elementary. The previous years I was always in secondary, serving as a classroom teacher as I taught high school English. I was a middle school assistant principal. I worked in curriculum and instruction, and all of that experience was mostly geared towards secondary.

00:02:26:08 - 00:02:53:00
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so when the opportunity came to be the principal at Jones Elementary, there were several things that took place. You know, when I got there. The they had just come out of being a failing campus. So they were right there on the edge that previous year with the previous principal. But there were many broken systems. I didn't have any of those systems.

00:02:53:02 - 00:03:31:21
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I didn't have a handbook. Start out with $88 in the activity account. So I pretty much started with nothing. And it was all on myself. I had a new app, which was also new to being an assistant principal, and I had a completely new leadership team. So, we were still in school improvement. So I also had, a rep that was coming in and helping us look at our goals and work on our to plan and make sure that we were implementing that so that we could continue to grow.

00:03:31:23 - 00:03:47:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So there were just a lot of challenges I think I had is a very small school there. The capacity is like 425. So they left about it's about 27 to 30 teachers. And when I got there I had 14 vacancies.

00:03:47:18 - 00:03:48:18
Matthew Flippen
Oh goodness. Okay.

00:03:48:20 - 00:03:51:08
Dr. NaTasha Crain
It was like mid June.

00:03:51:10 - 00:04:13:19
Matthew Flippen
Okay. That's not a lot of time. But well I was just going to ask how are you received by the by the staff when you arrived. But it sounds like you were received by half the staff and your little loved me. The five people that were left, and then you hired everybody else. Okay. Well, that, in first principalship, that must have been a wild summer.

00:04:13:21 - 00:04:40:10
Dr. NaTasha Crain
It was a very well summer. It was a sleepless summer. Because I was so determined to some make that school successful. Fortunately, at had some of the older siblings, and I've had some experience with those families because of where I was coming from as an assistant principal. So that was, something that was on my side, was that I felt like I immediately had some community in parent support.

00:04:40:12 - 00:04:47:04
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so that was huge for me to just really, you know, hone in on that and ask them for their help.

00:04:47:09 - 00:04:54:13
Matthew Flippen
No. Yeah, absolutely. So you got to August, you arrived in August. Were you able to fill most of those positions and start with a full team?

00:04:54:14 - 00:05:02:17
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I was able to start with the 14 team. I did get all those positions hired. And we just hit the ground running.

00:05:02:18 - 00:05:17:23
Matthew Flippen
At the instructional level when, because I would like for us to kind of focus a little bit on that, that today. Now, what did you see as the challenges, maybe in how instruction was being delivered or just where the students were compared to where you knew they could get to?

00:05:18:00 - 00:05:43:07
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, as I said, there were significant gaps in achievement. They were, you know, just coming up, being a bill and campus, they were literally right there on the edge. And so with that, once we started digging into the data, we saw that there were students that were two or more grade levels behind. And so with a new staff, many of them were first year teachers as well as you can imagine, hiring in the summer.

00:05:43:09 - 00:06:08:17
Dr. NaTasha Crain
There was an opportunity for me to cultivate what I wanted the instructional practices to look like. And as a new teacher, you know, when you're new, you don't know a different way. You're not setting your way. So it was a great opportunity for me to cultivate something great at Jones Elementary. That was really cater to the students, to the families and to the community.

00:06:08:20 - 00:06:35:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And then when we looked at instruction, it was a great opportunity for us to utilize some type of intervention measure. And so with that, like I said, I started with no handbook, no schedule. The first thing that we created in our master schedule was an intervention block to happen daily. And so that is something that we really utilize to close those achievement gaps and really shore up our tier one instruction.

00:06:35:23 - 00:07:06:07
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So in the classroom we're teaching solid tier one instruction. But if you have students that are two or more grade levels behind, then what is the strategic intervention measure that you're going to take to ensure that those students not only get that solid tier one instruction, but they're also catching up and closing their achievement gaps. And so we let their resources that we were using for intervention, we read that, revamped some of those resources, and really focused in on those students that we were targeting during intervention.

00:07:06:12 - 00:07:12:05
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And really had an intentional schedule that we were using for intervention, for reading in their.

00:07:12:07 - 00:07:20:23
Matthew Flippen
Well, for reading and for math. So and just for for context, what percentage of children were 1 or 2 levels behind roughly, I.

00:07:20:23 - 00:07:35:18
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Would say probably, you know, over 25% of those students and specifically, when you look at the accountability grades were grades 3 to 5, I would say closer to 30% of those students were two or more grade levels behind.

00:07:35:19 - 00:07:55:09
Matthew Flippen
Okay, that's a significant number. I mean, that's a significant amount of time. And so setting aside this specific intervention, period time block and then recognizing it and acknowledging it, you know, sometimes people can educators can look at those statistics and feel kind of hopeless, right? I mean, oh, my goodness, you know, so many. You're so far behind.

00:07:55:09 - 00:07:58:08
Matthew Flippen
We're never going to get there. How did you address that or overcome that?

00:07:58:09 - 00:08:16:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I'm a person that really likes to set goals. I set long term goals and short term goals. And I also, you know, as a leader, I know it's important to stamp success. And so as a group, we took on that challenge of, you know, where do we want to be? Well, we want to be at the top.

00:08:17:00 - 00:08:35:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
We want to be number one. Realistically, where can we land? And so at the end of this year, where do we land. And then along the way, what are the small steps that we're going to take to get there. And so every three weeks it was coming back and really monitoring okay. This is our goal. How close are we.

00:08:35:21 - 00:09:05:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
How are we really looking at each individual student. Fortunately, you know with only 400 students. And then when you look at the accountability grade levels in grades three through five, some years out of the seven years that I was there, it was looking at less than 100 kids. So that's great that you can really focus on those individual students, but it's also knowing how to play the game, because if you had ten students that aren't making the mark, then they'll.

00:09:05:18 - 00:09:36:20
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so the pressure is on. You know, it's a great thing because you're so close knit and you're able to build those relationships. You're able to get to know those individual students. But the stakes are high because if you don't make that movement with self, these students in this accountability game, then unfortunately you don't win in helping my stack up, helping the teachers understand, like now you can't put that students in the corner on the iPad like that can't happen anymore.

00:09:37:00 - 00:09:58:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Because if we lose those five students, we lose an accountability. And so really helping them understand that each student counts. And so we call that win time is what I need. And so students even became involved in looking at their goals and and setting their numbers. And so we call that a magic number. What is your magic number for you to grow each year?

00:09:59:01 - 00:10:19:18
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So I need your magic number. Plus five is so you know everybody had their number. We communicated that with parents like, you know, there's 45 questions on the test in order for your student to to be successful. And I'll have to pass it per se or be on grade level per se. But they had to get 27 questions right.

00:10:19:19 - 00:10:43:03
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And I like out of 40. So they became doable. Oh I only have 23 questions right. Well actually 28 because I need five more of him. But that became realistic for them. And so really had that growth mindset of like 100 is not the goal, but growth is definitely the goal. And so you can make that growth growth more than you will be successful.

00:10:43:04 - 00:10:58:16
Matthew Flippen
That's incredible. That's an grow. So it sounds like you had some routines of checking in. Tell us a little bit about that. Just how did you distinguish between when there was kind of surface level instruction going on versus like the real strong instructional practices that you wanted to see? How did you know that.

00:10:58:16 - 00:11:29:01
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Over time, we, worked with our I Services Center, region seven service Center, and we became involved in their, Texas instructional leadership. We also became involved in lesson on, alignment and formative assessment. And I think once we took on that structure routine and that protocol, that's when we saw the needle moving, because it allowed us to be strategic with how we were first about building teacher and leadership capacity.

00:11:29:07 - 00:11:54:06
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And then from that, of course, as your teacher capacity increases, then that's when you really can move into successful student outcomes. And so with following that, that list and alignment and formative assessment, it really is about tier one instruction. And so your lesson objective is aligned to what you're actually teaching. So what you have is that actually what we're seeing in the classroom.

00:11:54:06 - 00:12:15:05
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So what you have written as you're learning objectives or you're learning target for today when we come in your classroom, is that actually what's happening. And then the assessment piece is how are you assessing each day to check for understanding. And so is then your objective aligned to what you say that you're testing them over to check for understanding.

00:12:15:08 - 00:12:35:22
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so just having that clear protocol for them and moving the needle a little bit at a time. That was our strategic way of making sure that we not only built teacher capacity, but we were also able to see students grow. And so for a new teacher, you know, I really want to see all the things, of course.

00:12:36:00 - 00:12:59:05
Dr. NaTasha Crain
But then when we kind of break that down and say, can you just at least write a great learning target? And so let's think about that learning target. And if you were executing that, what does that one thing look like. So if you're going to check for understanding, what is the one question that you can ask by the end of the lesson that will let you know it's students are mastering it.

00:12:59:10 - 00:13:28:22
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so once we got into that routine, then that is what also strengthened our intervention, because now we know each day what students are mastering those learning targets and what students are not. And so based on that, that is another piece that we added to intervention. So we are being very strategic with knowing where they're landing with our tier one instruction and how to go back and reteach and provide those intervention measures as well as using certain programs.

00:13:29:00 - 00:13:59:03
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Whether it was math or i-ready or, you know, back in the day, we also used our Renaissance. And so using those diagnostic and prescriptive programs, helps close those achievement gaps where those students may be, you know, more than two grade levels behind. And so it's a very strategic process of how do you close those gaps, and how do you make sure that the current information that you're teaching, that they're also able to master that.

00:13:59:05 - 00:14:15:17
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so it requires a lot of conversation. It requires a lot of planning, and it requires a lot of data analysis. So there's never a time when you're not letting data really guide your decision making and helping you determine what are the next instructional steps.

00:14:15:19 - 00:14:41:17
Matthew Flippen
Hey, educators, I hope you're enjoying this conversation at Graceland University. We believe real change in education starts with compassionate leadership and practical support. That's why we share stories like this. If something in today's episode spoke to you maybe about your purpose, your next step, or how you can make a bigger impact, I invite you to explore how Gracelyn walks alongside educators through degree programs and strategic partnerships.

00:14:41:19 - 00:15:06:03
Matthew Flippen
Scan the QR code on screen or follow the link in the show notes to learn more. Now let's get back to the episode. Natasha, there is so much brilliance. I hear just the professional level at which you, let led this. I'm wondering if you had perfect alignment and understanding among your staff, and if not, how did you coach them, what that feedback loop look like?

00:15:06:03 - 00:15:07:09
Matthew Flippen
Just on a personal level?

00:15:07:09 - 00:15:37:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, I think the first thing is that you have to have a culture, wanting to be coached and wanting to learn and wanting to grow. And so, I can't leave out the fact that we did a lot of things that to build culture, to get to that point, being able to coach teachers and having them to be vulnerable to see like, well, we're coming in really utilizing that coaching model because they're looking at me as the principal or the leader, then they're automatically thinking like, this is an evaluation.

00:15:37:23 - 00:16:21:12
Dr. NaTasha Crain
This is going to determine whether I can stay here or be here. And so really utilizing our professional learning communities, our PLC processes, to facilitate and build that culture of trust, first of all, and that culture of vulnerability. And so practicing some of those things in PLCs with adults, very uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. But getting them to the point, because if we all had the same goal of one of our students to be successful, wouldn't it be better to make those mistakes or clear up those misconceptions in front of us as adults, and we work through it, rather than you go in the classroom and further create gaps with key.

00:16:21:12 - 00:16:35:01
Matthew Flippen
So this was this was like role play. Is there a specific, specific example that comes to mind? I'm sure it's most uncomfortable when you first do it and then hope it gets better over time. There an example that comes to mind when you're thinking about that.

00:16:35:02 - 00:17:01:14
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, I think the first thing is when we first started and I modeled. So, you know, there was a lot of me at first because I'm also having my leadership team come in and watch, and build their capacity. So a lot of that was on me. And although I felt like I was a pretty decent teacher, it is still a lot of pressure to get it right because, the and wanting my, my teachers to execute it.

00:17:01:14 - 00:17:24:08
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Right. And so I did a lot of modeling in PLCs. And the easiest thing, to me was just having them like, how do you open a lesson, you know, how do you open a lesson and really make sure that you are communicating that learning target? We know it's on the board, but is not on the board for me, is on the board for your students.

00:17:24:13 - 00:17:45:08
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so that was something very basic and simple that, you know, our model and I and that was the most terrifying thing to some of my teachers because they actually had not opened their lesson with, you know, saying, stating that today we're going to do this or by the end of the lesson, you should be able to do these things.

00:17:45:08 - 00:18:08:10
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And really stating that objective and breaking that down for students, because the other providers and when we come in and lodge and coach and hooks are we want to ask the students, what are you learning today? We don't want to know what worksheet you're working on. We want to know what you're learning. And so getting to that point really took about a semester of work.

00:18:08:12 - 00:18:29:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
However, as we got better with that, we saw the data the needle moving on our data. And so once you're able again to stamp the success then that helps people to be a little bit more vulnerable and to really see that, you know, this is really working. And so, you know, the goal is can you do one thing, you know, can you master this one thing?

00:18:30:04 - 00:18:50:07
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So now that you've mastered that and you had that in your tool belt, let's move on to the next thing. And so really having them to come up and for first of all me modeling it and then them coming up in PLCs and modeling it, it was a little unnerving at first. And you know, I'm like, I really like to have fun.

00:18:50:07 - 00:19:10:14
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And I'm a jokester. People, they can be serious, but I we have to laugh about some of these things. And I'm like, did you just say what you say? You know, and we all laugh about it and I make a mistake and I'm like, that didn't make sense, though, you know, to help me, you know, help me. And I would be vulnerable because I tell everyone like, I'm not a math person.

00:19:10:16 - 00:19:31:20
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So I might say something in math and, and I'll say, what does that even mean? Like, tell me, what did I even say? Because, you know, and they helped me understand. And so they asked me that it is about all of us learning and growing. I might not be an expert, but you can help me. But I can tell you what good instruction looks like.

00:19:31:22 - 00:19:35:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so really understood that we were all working together.

00:19:35:18 - 00:19:55:10
Matthew Flippen
Yeah. I mean, just to highlight a couple things that you said that are so important. I mean, one, it starts with trust and relationships. So you gotta you've got some foundation to build and be consistent about it. And then this path towards vulnerability because in in using the term coaching versus evaluating is is real, intentional and very very necessary.

00:19:55:15 - 00:20:22:17
Matthew Flippen
So off the research on don't evaluate me because then I'm super anxious. But if you're coaching which is a form of helping right. Helping us work towards the the goal, then yeah, I can be I won't be as anxious. But then the fact that you still have to be vulnerable in so and so adults. It's funny to think that I can talk in front of children all day long, and I have no anxiety about that, but put me around some other adults and now I'm having state like.

00:20:22:19 - 00:20:54:07
Matthew Flippen
And so the fact that you went first and and were vulnerable, I mean, I can picture, you know, the math topic coming up and you're like, okay, well, I'm going to do it. And you and you know, you're going to do it wrong in some form. And yet that you making a mistake now gives permission to the rest of your team to make mistakes because they see that you're going to joke about it and, and in a, in a loving way, and everybody's going to be able to get better because they're getting helpful coaching.

00:20:54:07 - 00:20:58:01
Matthew Flippen
And you said it's only a semester later and you started to see the movement. Was that right?

00:20:58:01 - 00:21:20:11
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Right. And I'm being transparent, because I am the evaluator. So really having like, even down to a schedule, you know, these are the things that we're coaching you on. And so for this, for the next three weeks when we come in your room, these are not evaluations. These are coaching observations. And they were going to come back.

00:21:20:11 - 00:21:39:10
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And I said, so when you see me, you know, for example, it was somebody that at that and evaluator like when I come by myself then I'm probably giving you a walk through. But as long as I have an instructional coach with me or, you know, I have another teacher with me, even then, these are coaching moments. So it's okay to mess up.

00:21:39:12 - 00:21:51:15
Dr. NaTasha Crain
You don't have to be perfect. You are going to get some feedback over it, but that's not going to be part of your evaluation. And so really having that transparency of communication is something that's also very important.

00:21:51:15 - 00:22:10:23
Matthew Flippen
Totally totally true. Totally true. Yeah I'd completely, completely agree. So, you know, I know there's a there's a great outcome that happened. I want to be sure that we get to talk about that. So. So you came in it, had had just come off of sailing. Is that right? And but still right on the.

00:22:10:23 - 00:22:35:04
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Edge there, right on the ear. So first year we, we maintained, and then the second year it all fell apart. So the second year, we received the, the writing. So we were back to a failing campus. We also had organizational help in that writings that we received that gave us a score about our campus culture.

00:22:35:08 - 00:22:56:19
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so the correlation of that is, if you have a healthy campus culture, then that correlates to how students are performing. Well, that is on a scale about, 0 to 100 as well, just like accountability, you know, a through F writing. So not only did we get a D, but the Ogi rating was a four out of one.

00:22:56:21 - 00:23:02:03
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So it really it really it it was a four.

00:23:02:05 - 00:23:05:12
Matthew Flippen
And I know and imagine how you felt when you saw that it.

00:23:05:12 - 00:23:28:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Was the most devastating thing. Like, I've never failed anything. And so we gathered as a team, my leadership team, we gathered. And then I also had, an ode to our team on campus that would help me with the pulse of the campus and, you know, morale. And so, very strategic with how I said that team, because I would say this is the honesty room.

00:23:28:18 - 00:23:51:05
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so I need to know the pulse of the campus. I perceive it one way because I know the work that I'm doing. And that my work and outcomes are two different things. So I need you to really tell me the outcome of the work that we're doing. And, really got that team together. And, you know, they're like, no, we this is not a four campus.

00:23:51:05 - 00:24:15:11
Dr. NaTasha Crain
A four really means that there's chaos. And, you know, and and we had systems we had routines, we had all of those things. But it's also about getting the right people in the right seat. So I would also make sure leaders understand that you could be doing the right things and even have systems in place. But if you don't have the right people that have moved from banging into commitment, then sometimes that's not the outcome.

00:24:15:12 - 00:24:36:15
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so that is pretty much what we had going on at Jones middle ear. We didn't have the right people. And as I said, it was 13 or 14 vacancies. So over those two years, starting to figure out those people that made the, you know, they were hired initially may not be a good fit because we spent a lot of time developing a student profile.

00:24:36:15 - 00:24:55:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Like, what is students here? You know, what do I look like? What do they need? And then you know, really start to so this is our student profile. And we're saying that this is what our community of learners need, that we also need an educator that can meet those needs. And so there were a lot of crucial conversations within that second year.

00:24:55:18 - 00:25:20:05
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so with that, there were some that were not happy and really needing to figure out if they were in the right seat of helping us move the needle. And so, you know, from from that four oh rating. And that day, it really shaped me as a leader because it made me self-reflect. It made me, be even more transparent and even more honorable because I really wanted that campus to succeed.

00:25:20:05 - 00:25:24:17
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I wanted the community to succeed. And so it was a three year journey.

00:25:24:18 - 00:25:37:19
Matthew Flippen
Yeah. So I mean, when you look back at that, I mean, what was that? What were the, you know, 1 or 2 areas that you felt like you needed to grow the most because I know you felt responsible for this. What did you identify and start to.

00:25:37:20 - 00:26:02:01
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, for me, on a personal note, as a leader, every survey that I've taken, I have always been task over people because I'm just so like, I want the job done. And so it really made me intentional about ways that I'm building relationships, ways that I am able to show empathy and balance that empathy with having high expectations.

00:26:02:03 - 00:26:20:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so it really made me look in the mirror and say, you know, perception is reality. Although I'm on to give myself grace and know that that may not be my intention, but the perception of how it came out is the reality. And so if I don't want that perception, then as a leader, I have to change.

00:26:21:04 - 00:26:44:21
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I can still have those high expectations. But then how am I being intentional about building those relationships? How am I being intentional about, making sure that people feel heard? And really, it shaped my view on the importance of shared leadership. And one of the things I always tell, you know, whether you're a teacher and a like, you lead where you are.

00:26:44:23 - 00:26:55:21
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so it really helped me understand how to be a leader among leaders, going through that because I needed everybody's help to make Jones be what we said we wanted it to be.

00:26:55:21 - 00:27:00:17
Matthew Flippen
Was there a specific practice that you implemented that helped helped with that?

00:27:00:17 - 00:27:22:13
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, one of the things that we we really talked about as we built that student profile was looking at all of the data points, not just instruction, but we looked at discipline and behavior. And that is really where we start to see a change in our culture. Because as we were talking about discipline and looking at data points, where do these students need that?

00:27:22:13 - 00:27:57:15
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I need a punitive consequence to do. They need to be taught. And so that really started us moving into social emotional learning and really understanding the social needs of students, to help them behaviorally so they could succeed academically. And with that, we also had a moment of adult here. And so what do we need as adults? And it really based on all of our, our background, our previous experiences really affect how we then in turn communicate, and the decisions that we make as adults.

00:27:57:15 - 00:28:25:22
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so it was just a great opportunity to, to build relationships as well as just a little bit of self reflection and self improvement overall. And and so it wasn't necessarily that we I was looking for teachers that came from the same communities as the students at Jones. It was more so about do you understand? And so culturally relevant teaching was something that we also incorporated with social emotional learning.

00:28:26:03 - 00:28:48:11
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so what does that look like for a student, at Jones with this background, how do you help them self-regulate and how do you help them understand behaviors in a traditional classroom setting that are so different from behaviors that they experience at home? And so we really took the time to teach behaviors of what we wanted to see in a traditional classroom setting.

00:28:48:17 - 00:29:11:14
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And we took the time to get to know the families. And so that, parent and family engagement piece was also huge because we just invited community. And, I would do copy a conversations with Crane and community members could come in and parents could come in, and there was no specific agenda. I took some time to express, you know what we told them, you know, was our campus goals.

00:29:11:16 - 00:29:27:09
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And from there it was now, what do you want to see happen? You know, what are some things that you notice from the outside looking in and, and maybe we can help with it. How do you feel about the teachers? How do you feel about the adults here in the building that you feel like we are nurturing and that we're caring?

00:29:27:09 - 00:29:48:01
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And what are some things that we can do? And so it was a lot of work because a lot of the things that they wanted from us are that really help had nothing to do with how teachers were standing up delivering lessons in the classroom. It was about helping them provide basic needs, school supplies, clothes burn, you know, anything you name it.

00:29:48:01 - 00:30:13:00
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so, donating, you know, working with community and getting Thanksgiving dinners or, you know, working with other community aspects and helping them find housing. I did a job there. In addition, with my career fair, I also did a job there for a couple of years and had the Texas Workforce Center come to my building, as opposed to them being located on the other side of town.

00:30:13:00 - 00:30:32:00
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And I'm like, here's the deal. If you all come here, I need you to guarantee ten jobs on the spot for me. You know, I need you to to give ten of my families jobs today. And so those were the things that made the difference, because they really saw that this was a school, but it was also a community.

00:30:32:05 - 00:30:40:23
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so if you know, they're on board and we're providing what you need at home, the very least you can do is make sure that your child is coming here ready to learn.

00:30:41:00 - 00:30:58:20
Matthew Flippen
Yeah, I love that. I mean, just to highlight it one more time, because I've never heard someone say that specifically you had a job fair, which that's not uncommon, but the job fair was to help find jobs for the parents of the children and to show how committed you are. And the jobs weren't with the school district necessarily.

00:30:58:20 - 00:31:24:00
Matthew Flippen
They were in they were jobs available in the community through the Texas Workforce Commission or whatever. So that's it. That is a beautiful idea and one that cost some time and some commitment, but didn't cost any real dollars to do that. But how what an incredible signal to send of caring and concern. So, I love that among all the other things that you've shared, Natasha.

00:31:24:00 - 00:31:30:00
Matthew Flippen
So, so take us through the, the, the change that happened. Because somewhere in this story.

00:31:30:02 - 00:31:53:19
Dr. NaTasha Crain
There's a great ending. But there's really a great ending. So like I said, it was three years of work. And within those three years it was also amongst Covid. And so that is another reason that it may have taken longer than what we anticipated, because, you know, there was a brief pause of school during Covid. And so, but we never stopped working over those three years.

00:31:53:19 - 00:32:16:09
Dr. NaTasha Crain
We we stuck to our goals and revisited those goals. And so, over those last three years, of course, we kept the, the writing. But when we look at it that the data, we were constantly growing. So, you know, once we got in full swing, 2021, 2022 school year, we were really at, about a 75 writing.

00:32:16:09 - 00:32:42:18
Dr. NaTasha Crain
We were at a solid C, even though, you know, there were no writings when we looked at our data. And so the end of 2020, two, when the writings came out, we moved from a D to a B. We did continue. That was our survey. So we went from A for the next year. We made a seven day and then once we got into the 70s, my old team was like, we need to be in the 80s.

00:32:42:20 - 00:32:51:12
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so we got into the 80s. And then that year that we received therapy writing our task. What was a 98 woe is.

00:32:51:14 - 00:32:52:04
Matthew Flippen
Yeah.

00:32:52:06 - 00:33:13:18
Dr. NaTasha Crain
That's incredible. We went from a forward to a 90 a from a day to a B writing, and it was just really staying true to your goals, really being intentional about our goals and monitoring those goals and making those adjustments along the way. And doing the work that we needed to do as adults to be, more collaborative.

00:33:13:19 - 00:33:27:01
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And instead of working in silos so that, you know, the more that we were, more codependent on each other and working together, then we saw how well the students, they also grew.

00:33:27:02 - 00:33:50:11
Matthew Flippen
That's incredible. Thank you for sharing that. I know that was a hard, a hard journey, but I know that your diligence, prayers, tears, you know. Yes. Afraid of is there, in that journey and on the on the other end when you started seeing success, is there is there a story about the impact that that had on a specific child or staff member that really touches your heart when you think back on it?

00:33:50:11 - 00:34:11:08
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, there's so many students that I just can't name one. Over the years, because seven years is a long time to be a building principal. So, you know, you had saying students from kindergarten to fifth grade, and just their growth and really learning their families. And like I said, I had the advantage of some of their older siblings or at the middle school.

00:34:11:12 - 00:34:29:14
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So just really being a part of that family for a very long time, when people ask me, how many kids do I have? I'm like, well, this year I have, 388. Next year I might have 430. They just they were just really my I feel like they were my kids. And so I would tell them, they're like, you're mine.

00:34:29:14 - 00:34:48:06
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so I want the best for you. Just like my own child. I want the very best. And so, you know, there going to be some growing pains. You're not going to like the things that I'm telling you all the time. But when we get to the end, you'll see. You know why? You'll understand the why. I'm telling you why, but you can't really see it.

00:34:48:08 - 00:35:14:00
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And it's the same thing with teachers. The teacher that that really sticks out. A teacher that I hired, she had been a substitute teacher well over five years. Just subbing. And in a neighboring district and she decided she wanted more. She wanted to do more. And so, I gave her a chance. I really, you know, my, student profile and the the size of our campus.

00:35:14:02 - 00:35:45:13
Dr. NaTasha Crain
I really try my best to hire highly qualified teachers from the start. Just because time was of the essence. But she was near finishing her student teaching. She was near finishing her art certification, and I gave her a chance. Because one of the things in our profile is, can you manage your classroom? Well, if you've been serving for five years, you can manage a classroom, you know, because that that requires a different type of management, a skill set where you're not the real teacher.

00:35:45:15 - 00:36:07:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
So I hired her, as an English teacher. Reading teacher. And she said that was her favorite subject from subbing. And, you know, she has some great ideas and some things that she, as a long term sub that she had implemented or we got in there and although she was great with classroom management, but we also had to connect it to the data.

00:36:07:18 - 00:36:31:12
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so, the data was not where we wanted it to be. And so we were kind of at a crossroads. So I, thought about it and I'm like, she's just so determined. And, you know, we would coach and we would had those conversations. I would point out some things and she would fix most of them, but just some of the things were just not in her toolbelt yet.

00:36:31:14 - 00:36:55:16
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so it was a conversation with the leadership team. Do we have time to continue to grow this teacher? Or do we say, you know, this is just not a good fit for what we need at John's to, to move our data. And so we were at that point was just not a good fit. We hit that and, you know, file benchmark spring benchmark spring benchmark was still not where we wanted it to be.

00:36:55:16 - 00:37:21:06
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And so we were just there at the end and, it was literally like April. And we walked in there and there was a totally different teacher. We got the results from star. It was a totally different teacher. And so I was like, I'm going to take a chance on her again, but I'm going to move her to a different grade level just because of accountability and growth.

00:37:21:07 - 00:37:48:13
Dr. NaTasha Crain
But when we saw the data and her end goal and her outcome, it was like that. And that's the great part of the light bulb moment as a leader for students and for teachers. All of a sudden in the march begin April, she had a light bulb moment. And so when we did, our, our focus would be the last three weeks before star, she really got in there and followed all the things, and it worked out.

00:37:48:13 - 00:38:07:10
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And it was in her paper. And so her data ended well. And so she was ready to go for that next year, as it continued to grow. And I, I'm proud to say that last year she was the campus teacher of the year and was my top. When I left there. She was my top one of my top, reading teachers.

00:38:07:10 - 00:38:34:10
Dr. NaTasha Crain
She was the top fifth grade teacher making those moves and moving the needle with the data. She was a teacher that the district wanted to come in and observe. With just three years of experience. I mean, her growth was phenomenal, because she was committed to doing all the things and all the coaching that we had done with her, really showed that it can happen, you know, with a lot of determination with by and and commitment.

00:38:34:12 - 00:38:40:12
Dr. NaTasha Crain
It you can turn around and really, produce something that's going to be great for kids.

00:38:40:14 - 00:39:01:21
Matthew Flippen
I love that ride on the edge and then at the last minute had to turn enough of a turn to see the improvement in the in the children's performance and outcomes. You know what, what an incredible story. Well, and I know that in here you also were awarded the principal of the year for the hard work that you had led, and it was a team effort.

00:39:01:21 - 00:39:27:20
Matthew Flippen
Those are team awards to me, but but still recognized you for all that you and all that you've done. Well, Natasha, this has just been so encouraging and helpful because there's so many specific tactics that you shared that I know that others can can follow. And, and it's an encouragement to that. You know, the path to to growth isn't a straight line, of improvement.

00:39:27:20 - 00:39:57:12
Matthew Flippen
It can have some real setbacks, some you can control and some you can't. I mean, nobody could control Covid. That hurt every everybody. But the intentional continuing to work, self-reflect and then grow is really amazing. And I just thank you for the work that you did. Because in the end, I think about those 400 children that you were serving and how they were served because you and your team continued to to get better and better at the craft of educating them.

00:39:57:12 - 00:40:03:21
Matthew Flippen
So thank you. Thank you for that. How can our audience follow you and just continue to learn from your example?

00:40:03:22 - 00:40:31:19
Dr. NaTasha Crain
Well, I am on Facebook, of course. I'm on social media. I'm on LinkedIn. I try to share, some things that the that I'm doing now in leadership, especially now moving into the the assistant superintendent role. I try to share, the things that I feel are important with systems and making sure that alignment is happening so I can be followed on, on Facebook, as well as LinkedIn, just under under my name.

00:40:31:21 - 00:40:43:02
Dr. NaTasha Crain
And, and I love to have about leaders and partners and collaborate. So if anyone wants to reach out, LinkedIn is probably the easiest way. Doctor Natasha Cryan, I love to chat with you.

00:40:43:04 - 00:41:06:18
Matthew Flippen
Fantastic. Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you for being on today. Well, if you found today's episode valuable as I did, please share it with a colleague or educator that would benefit from it. If if you haven't already, please follow a transformational educator so you never miss an episode. And until next time, keep leading with purpose and transforming schools into places where everyone thrives.

00:41:06:20 - 00:41:31:15
Matthew Flippen
If today's conversation gave you fresh insight or inspired you to lead with purpose, please follow the show and tell a friend. It helps us reach more educators who want to make a difference. For more stories, resources, and tools to support your leadership journey, visit Graceland. Edu. Until next time, keep leading with courage and care. If you want to keep learning about transformational strategies and education, click the next video.