About North Star

North Star Educational Tools was created due to the high demand from teachers and literacy coordinators to have a more concise and efficient report to allow them to view a whole classroom at a glance. With NSET’s more comprehensive reports, the teachers at Lincoln School in the Brainerd School District have decreased their Learning Disability population by 66%.

North Star was started in Minnesota (The North Star State) and was in the local newspaper there in 2012 for the advancements being made in the 4th largest school district in the state, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan.  Please check out the article here.

Return on Investment (ROI) is one of the most important aspects of using a tool like North Star.  Our founder, Beth Swenson, has done an in-depth study on ROI using North Star.  This document is available for your review.

ROI Study

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Our Founders

Beth SwensonDirector of Learning
The founder of NSET, Beth Swenson, has more than 20 years of experience with progress monitoring and is currently a District Literacy Coordinator and Trainer. For 5 years, Beth continued her training and research on the Literacy Collaborative Model at Purdue University and Ohio State University. During the summer of 2007, She presented at Oxford University in England on using the Observation Survey as a progress-monitoring tool that informs instruction.

Beth is a national speaker on literacy, coaching, and response to intervention. Beth was recently awarded the WEM Outstanding Educator Award from the Academic Excellence Foundation for her work with special needs children

Shannon HillDirector of Technology
Shannon Hill serves as the Director of Technology for North Star. He has been a software engineer, architect and consultant for over fifteen years and has worked and consulted for many of the largest corporations in the world. He believes that the user interface should be paramount in North Star.