Small Actions, Big Impact: Mike Cronley on Creating Environments Where Everyone Matters

The Ruckus Report

Quick take: A former teacher turned ed-tech founder reveals how simple daily actions – from hallway check-ins to thoughtful class placements – can transform school culture and help every student thrive.
 
 

Meet Your Fellow Ruckus Maker

Mike Cronley is the CEO and co-founder of Class Composer, bringing 12 years of 3rd grade teaching experience to revolutionize how elementary schools create balanced classes. After witnessing firsthand how traditional class placement methods could unintentionally disrupt student relationships and learning environments, he developed a solution to help schools make more informed, equitable placement decisions.

Breaking Down the Old Rules

In this episode, Mike challenges traditional education paradigms:

Key Insight #1: The Power of Being Present

  • What’s broken: Leaders getting caught up in administrative tasks and losing touch with their staff
  • The shift: Intentional daily check-ins and genuine conversations with teachers
  • Impact: Teachers feel valued, leading to increased motivation and better student outcomes

Key Insight #2: From Paper to Purpose

  • What’s broken: Complex, paper-based class placement systems that miss crucial student dynamics
  • The shift: Data-informed decisions that consider academic, social, and emotional needs
  • Impact: More balanced classes and stronger student relationships

Key Insight #3: Taking Smart Risks

  • What’s broken: Fear of failure leading to stagnation in educational practices
  • The shift: Creating a culture where trying new approaches is encouraged
  • Impact: Continuous improvement through calculated risk-taking and innovation

Quotable Ruckus

“You have to be willing to take risks and try to improve. Not gigantic risks, but if you want to move the needle and do something different and better, you have to be willing to try.”

– Mike Cronley

Your Do School Different Challenge

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

  1. Tomorrow: Walk your halls after school and have one genuine conversation with a teacher
  2. This Month: Create a system to track meaningful check-ins with all staff members
  3. This Semester: Review your class placement process and identify opportunities for more data-informed decisions
target

Get the full episode transcript: here

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Join the Ruckus Maker Movement

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey

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— Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus:
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Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

Today’s RUCKUScast in Partnership with:

Class Composer: Want to know why Ruckus Makers love Class Composer? Because it turns the dreaded end-of-year class placement meetings into a streamlined, data-driven process. Your teachers will save hours of time while ensuring that nothing is overlooked, including student separations.
🔍 Learn more here

Quest Food Management Services: Creating joyful learning environments starts in the cafeteria. Quest brings 40 years of expertise in crafting scratch-made meals that nurture both body and community spirit through innovative student engagement programs.
🔍 Learn more here

ODP Business Solutions®: Most schools botch STEAM implementation because they're missing 3 critical elements. Here's the wild part: it's not about fancy tech or massive budgets. ODP Business Solutions® has researched many successful programs to identify what actually works (and what's just burning cash).
🔍 Learn the blueprint.

More Podcasts You’ll Love

If education ain’t a bit disruptive, then what are your students really learning?

This show isn’t about doing school better.

It’s about Doing School Different — and joining a growing movement of bold, creative school leaders who reject legacy models and reimagine what’s possible.

Here are four ways we can help you on your Do School Different journey

notebook

Subscribe to the Free Newsletter

— An opportunity to Do School Different 3x a week. Tools, mindset shifts, and strategies that actually work: ruckusmakers.news

Read Ruckus Makers

— Exclusive content on Substack. Premium leadership insights, AI prompts and custom GPTs, new books before the bookshelf: ruckusmakers.media

 

Join The Ruckus Maker Club

Our private network + workshops, The Automatic School tools, AI Prompt Library, and more:
The Ruckus Maker

 
 

Apply to the Mastermind

— Weekly coaching, peer mentorship, and our proven leadership system (The Ruckus Maker Flywheel) to help you transform your campus:
Apply Now

 
Every tool, community, and coaching program we offer is built to help visionary school leaders play the new game — one where leadership is creative, tech-enabled, and unapologetically student-centered.

The podcast is your starting point. The movement is just getting started.

Today’s RUCKUScast in Partnership with:

IXL: Meet your students where they are and take them where they need to go. Join over 1 million teachers who trust IXL to drive data-informed excellence in their classrooms.
🔍 Learn more: ixl.com/leaders

The Ruckus Maker Club Community beats compliance every single time. The Ruckus Maker Club is your on demand network of bold school leaders designing the future of education. Join today for $100 a month and get coaching on demand courses, AI prompts and custom GPTs and all our automatic school frameworks and tools within our private digital community.
🔍 Learn more: here

ODP Business Solutions®: Solutions “Our STEAM program is too complicated” = Code for “We’re doing it wrong.” Stop letting fear kill innovation. Some leaders are transforming STEAM with a three-part framework that’s not what you think.
🔍 Get the playbook: ODPbusiness.com/education

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Danny Bauer

Daniel Bauer

As a chronically late student, Danny Bauer once told his Chemistry teacher a fib about saving an entire girl scout troop from a burning building to get out of a tardy.

Danny is not sure if it was the very made up story, the very real cookie he offered his teacher, or a combination of both that got him out of a detention that day …

That experience taught him it pays to develop your storytelling skills.

Danny has been telling stories since then, most recently on the Better Leaders Better Schools podcast, ranked in the TOP 0.5% of 3 million global podcasts, and via his two bestselling books, Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader and Build Leadership Momentum: How to Create the Perfect Principal Entry Plan.

He also loves telling stories while facilitating in person leadership workshops at national conferences and for school districts.

Danny’s mission is to help Ruckus Makers Do School Different™.

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Soniya Trivedi

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Since 2022, Soniya has played an important role in supporting BLBS with her comprehensive website services.

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Dragan Ponjevic

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Dragan has been producing BLBS audio and video content since 2020.

Christina

Christina

My passion for both baseball and literature was the initial catalyst that led me into education. Growing up as a softball player and a die-hard fan of the Chicago Cubs from the North Side of the city, I developed a profound appreciation for the South Side of Chicago, not enough to convert me into a White Sox fan. As a National Board certified teacher, with over 16 years of experience on Chicago’s South Side, my journey as an educator has taken me from my roots in the Windy City to Virginia, as an instructional coach.

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Premaria Mutambudzi

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Dan Watt

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Gene Park

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Leaning into these connections has brought him to become the Innovation Lead for a statewide project called I’m Determined – developing and producing animated videos and feature-length movies, facilitating events and building tools and resources for youth, families, and educators – all as ways to help students ink their journeys for the world to see.

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Paige has used this as the central driving force of her work ever since… a willingness to be part of the work, not just driving the work.

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