Leadership Specialist, PrincipalReady
Christie Ray
A real principal — coaching the next ones.
25+ years in education. Six years as a building principal. Nearly three years leading principal-pipeline development for a Florida district. Now based in Austin, Texas — the same state as every candidate sitting for the TExES 268 — and the on-camera coach behind every PrincipalReady lesson.
Districts don't buy platforms. They buy people.
The hardest part of certification prep isn't the content. It's the moment a candidate freezes mid-question and has no one to walk them out of it. PrincipalReady fixes that by putting a real coach behind every item — not a chatbot, not a chapter quiz, not a 90-page study guide. That coach is Christie Ray. She isn't an instructor we hired to read a script — she's a former principal who has spent her whole career doing the exact work this exam is testing.
A Career in the Buildings
She's stood in every doorway her candidates will.
Christie's path is the path most aspiring principals are on right now — classroom teacher to instructional leader to assistant principal to principal to system-level pipeline work. Nothing about the 268 is theory to her.
The Résumé
Twenty-five years. Five districts. Two states.
She didn't read about the principalship. She lived it — on two campuses, then built the bench that filled the next ones.
Six-plus years leading Tangelo Park Elementary and Westside K8 across two Central Florida districts. Two campuses, two communities, one set of instincts about what actually moves student outcomes.
Leadership Development & Principal Pipeline for OCPS — identifying, developing, and certifying the next generation of principals. The work PrincipalReady now does at scale.
Ran leadership training for current and future school leaders — coaching APs through their first observation cycles and walking aspiring principals through certification.
Selected to a coaching seat with new educators across the district — after nearly a decade teaching at Pizzo Elementary and a turn as a Gifted teacher at Pride Elementary.
Wrote and facilitated online gifted-endorsement courses for three years. She's built and taught online courses before — not just appeared in them. It's why her on-camera lessons land.
A Guide and Reading Specialist at Alpha School, the AI-native private school reshaping one-on-one instruction. The move put her in the same state as every 268 candidate. She knows the territory because she lives in it.
The Voice of Every Lesson
One coach. Behind every item.
At PrincipalReady, Christie isn't a face on a banner — she's the person on screen when you're stuck, and the one you can ask live.
Every Lesson
She hosts every lesson in the boot camp — teaching the strategy, not just the content. The reframe, in her own voice, item by item.
Every Rationale Video
Why the right answer is right — and why the trap answer is wrong. The rationale video walks you out of the freeze before it costs you points.
Monthly Zoom Open House
A live room with a real principal. Bring your questions, your scenario stems, your nerves — and get answers from someone who's sat in the chair.
Confidence is built, not born.
Christie has watched capable educators freeze on a test they already knew, and she's watched them walk back in and pass once someone showed them how the exam thinks. That's the whole job here — turning what you already do on your campus into the answer the 268 is actually asking for. She's done it for APs, for aspiring principals, and for a district's entire bench. Now she does it for you.
A real principal, in your corner.
Start with the free diagnostic and see exactly where you stand on the 268 — then meet your coach inside the boot camp.
Helping principals lead with confidence.
