Leading STARI Professional Learning in Your School: Insights from Two Facilitators

January 7, 2026

Thinking about implementing STARI at your school, but wondering about the training involved?

Here's something you might not know: you and your colleagues can complete STARI professional learning right in your own school, with the teachers and leaders you already work with every day.

With a STARI Facilitator license, you can lead your colleagues through our comprehensive professional learning series and train STARI teachers right in your school and district. It's designed to be both easy and effective. But don't just take our word for it.

If the idea of leading STARI professional learning sounds intimidating or like a massive time commitment, you're not alone. That's why we talked with two school-based leaders who've been there to share their real experiences facilitating STARI training.

Meet Our Featured Facilitators

Geneviève DeBose is a Literacy Coach for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. With three years of experience facilitating STARI professional learning, she brings valuable perspective on what works.

Carly Gifford is a Reading Interventionist in Wisconsin who's in her first year of facilitating STARI professional learning. Her fresh experience offers insights for those just getting started.

Getting Off to a Strong Start

Let's address the elephant in the room: planning two full days of summer professional development sounds intimidating, right?

Ideally, the first six sessions of STARI professional learning should be completed before teachers begin using STARI in their classrooms. Both Carly and Geneviève were able to schedule these sessions during summer district work days with their future STARI teachers. And here's the good news—it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as it sounds.

The secret? The STARI Facilitator Guide walks leaders through every single step of the process. Both facilitators emphasized how manageable the planning process was when working with their co-leaders.

Carly's experience was particularly reassuring: "We got together, briefly, maybe an hour or two before, and found that everything was laid out so well…we didn't have to do much. It's all right there! So, that was, like… Gold! The Facilitator Guide is so thorough, not missing anything, and we were floored that we didn't have to prepare the training materials."

What about organizing all the nitty-gritty details of each training day? Geneviève kept it simple: "We literally just used exactly what you all gave in terms of structures and tips for how you can organize those two days. It was very straightforward."

Both leaders agreed on one crucial outcome: by the end of those two days of summer training, their teachers had built a solid foundation for launching the STARI year with confidence and the knowledge they needed to succeed.

Seeing STARI in Action

With any professional learning initiative, teacher buy-in is absolutely key. Teachers don't have time for professional learning that feels disconnected from classroom reality.

If you've explored the STARI website (and if you haven't, check it out!), you've seen our videos featuring real students and teachers engaged with STARI. These videos serve as powerful tools during professional learning, helping teachers visualize how students engage with STARI and grow over time, grounding the entire professional learning experience in authentic classroom practice.

Carly highlighted the value of the videos: "It was nice to see it being implemented. To see what it looks like and go through it ourselves, was really important. And, we could also go back later to watch again and reflect."

Geneviève echoed this sentiment with particular enthusiasm: "I think the videos are incredibly helpful to see it in action. My favorite ones are always the advice from veteran STARI teachers. I think those clips are super helpful."

Another factor securing teacher buy-in? Many of the strategies featured in STARI professional learning were already familiar to Carly's teachers, including techniques like Stop & Jot and Turn & Talk. Revisiting these strategies within the STARI framework provided teachers with valuable opportunities to deepen their understanding and refine their practice.

Geneviève noted that learning the STARI fluency routine offered something particularly unique and useful: "It's not something that most middle school teachers are familiar with. I think it's very valuable for them to have the opportunity to learn the routine, see it in action, experience it."

Sustaining Momentum Throughout the Year

Completing the first six sessions before the school year begins is a game-changer. But what about the remaining 11 sessions—the ones that happen once the school year is in full swing and everyone's schedule gets packed? How do you manage the scheduling and organization? While some schools may have enough in-person professional learning time to do all 17 sessions together, Geneviève and Carly both used a hybrid approach. They led the first six sessions in person, but teachers did the rest asynchronously, using their own teacher licenses to access the online STARI professional learning series. 

The Facilitator Guide provides clear guidance about when sessions should be completed. As Geneviève explained: "The guidelines for timing of each session helped us get started and keep on track."

Once the school year launched, both Geneviève and Carly established regular meeting schedules with their STARI teachers. These meetings served as checkpoints to monitor progress and provide support by answering questions as they arose.

The Best Thing? Watching Students Grow

While the training structure and support materials matter, what truly makes it all worthwhile is witnessing student transformation.

Carly has seen remarkable changes in student confidence and engagement. Some of her students who had never spoken up in class or asked a question are now participating actively. "It's because they're being challenged. To think like, oh my gosh, that actually happened! It feels good."

Both leaders reported immediate improvements in student fluency—and not just in the obvious metric of words-per-minute. Carly shared an insight that many reading teachers will recognize: "You always have, or I do, the speed readers who think, the faster I go, the more fluent I am. And… I've even gotten those kiddos to slow down so they can comprehend."

Geneviève reflected on the broader impact she's observed: "Honestly, the texts and the conversations that kids have about them are so rich and so great, and the routines, I think, are really helpful, especially for middle school kids. The success that kids feel when they are seeing their progress in fluency, or getting better at engaging in discussion or summarizing with the five W's. And increasing the volume of reading that kids are doing, for them to see themselves as readers, and to be engaged in rich text about complex topics. It's been great."

The Bottom Line

STARI teacher training, facilitated by literacy leaders like you, makes these student outcomes possible. The process is more manageable than you might think, the materials are comprehensive and ready to use, and the impact on students is both immediate and profound.

Ready to learn more about becoming a STARI Facilitator at your school? Get started here!