Henderson County principals describe NCSTAR as a "living" school improvement tool

Henderson County school leaders told the school board on Jan. 13 that the district's move to NCSTAR (Indistar) has changed how schools monitor improvement work and set goals.

Joni Allison, principal of Hendersonville Middle School, and Heather Knapp, a Flat Rock Middle School teacher and SIT chair, walked trustees through how their site improvement teams use NCSTAR to track cohort proficiency, growth measures and other indicators. “NCSTAR has definitely been a learning curve on how to make it work,” Allison said, explaining that the platform houses mission statements, goals and a needs assessment that includes achievement, attendance and discipline data.

The presenters said schools are using cohort data from state end-of-grade tests to set proficiency targets and state achievement-level breakdowns to identify groups needing additional growth. Allison said Hendersonville Middle chose indicators including classroom data use, professional development aligned to needs, MTSS/tiered interventions and consistent classroom management strategies to reduce students’ cognitive load and increase instructional time.

Knapp described how Flat Rock uses Indistar to facilitate collaborative SIT meetings: agendas and minutes are uploaded, staff can supply anonymous talking points, and action steps are assigned and tracked. She said completed actions and monthly updates make NCSTAR a “living” document that supports transparency and district alignment. “It's a shared platform,” Knapp said; “if my name’s attached to something and it's live, I better do what I'm supposed to do.”

Board members asked about frequency and expectations; district staff said monthly SIT meetings are the expectation and are required by the NCSTAR process. Board members and presenters also discussed that some survey instruments used to inform plans (the state teacher working conditions survey) are administered biennially, and the district plans a short, focused interim survey in off years to monitor progress.

District staff said the platform lets schools borrow common language and evidence-based practices from one another; instructional services staff can post coaching comments directly in NCSTAR and monitor progress across schools. Trustees heard that the system had helped schools identify targeted interventions and evidence-based professional development tied to school goals.

District staff and principals said NCSTAR does not replace local collaboration: teams still meet, review norms, assign ownership for action steps and monitor student-level indicators weekly or monthly. Board members asked district staff to return with examples of how NCSTAR data translates into classroom-level interventions and outcomes at a future meeting.