Founder, PrincipalReady
Dr. Jason Ampel
The educator who's been on the other side of the testing-center door 70,000 times.
Dr. Jason Ampel has spent over 20 years in education — a decade in the classroom and a decade as a Professor of Education. In 2015 he founded The Learning Liaisons and grew it into a platform that helped 70,000+ educators pass their certification exams before it was acquired in 2021; he led the work there through May 2026. PrincipalReady is what he built next.
Principals keep failing exams they already know.
After two decades on the testing-center floor, Dr. Ampel kept seeing the same thing: smart, capable educators who knew the content — and still didn't pass. No one had ever taught them how the test thinks. Most prep is a textbook with a quiz attached. Real prep is a translation system — turning what you know into the answer the exam is actually asking for. That gap is why PrincipalReady exists.
The Track Record
Built one platform that worked. Then built another.
Four prep platforms, one conviction: every test is more strategy than content — and confidence can be engineered.
Built from zero into a platform that helped 70,000+ educators pass teacher-certification exams. Acquired in 2021.
The same strategy-first approach, pointed at the Florida FCLE — helping students clear a graduation-gating exam.
Prep for aspiring paraprofessionals — opening the door to a classroom career without a four-year degree.
The fourth platform — built for the educators who run the buildings. The TExES 268, decoded.
Who He Is
Educator first. Builder second.
The teaching came before the tech — and it still drives every decision.
In the classroom
10 yearsA decade teaching middle and high school social science — where he learned that the kids who "tested badly" usually didn't have a knowledge problem. They had a strategy and confidence problem.
In higher education
10 yearsA decade as a Professor of Education, training the next generation of teachers — and seeing the certification wall trip up capable people again and again.
As a builder
Self-taughtHe taught himself the websites, the LMS, the CRM, the video — after wasting money on agencies who asked what he wanted them to do. Know what's under the hood before you outsource it.
As a voice
PublishedWriting and speaking on test prep, confidence, and the future of certification — because the reframe only helps if people hear it. Do more. Help more. Be a force multiplier.
Every test is 80% strategy, 20% content.
It's the application of information, not the memorization of it. Drill-and-kill works for maybe one in ten people on a high-stakes exam — the rest need to be trained for how the questions are actually written. That belief is the throughline from his first classroom to his fourth platform.
Beyond the Boot Camp
Still teaching — just to a bigger room.
Based in Central Florida, Dr. Ampel writes regularly for educators and school leaders thinking about certification, confidence, and what comes after the test.
Following along is the easiest way in. He shares the reframes, the strategy breakdowns, and the build-in-public lessons on LinkedIn — most of it free, all of it useful.
His whole career, in your corner.
Confidence is built, not born. Start with the free diagnostic and see exactly where you stand on the 268.
Helping principals lead with confidence.
