STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING FOR EQUITY
Only We Can Transform
Our Community
Monday, May 4
11:00am–1:00pm CT
Virtual via Zoom
No change takes root, nor does it last, without community leadership and nurturing. Our learning communities are no exception.
Together, you have the power to make things how they ought to be. But it takes work.
Featured Speakers
Hear from current K-12 students—from Heritage High School, MaČźpĂya LĂşta, PiM Arts, Forest Lake Area High School, and Gatewood Elementary—alongside generations of our neighbors engaged in transformative, student-centered work worth doing.
EDUCATOR, ARTIST, COMMUNITY LEADERZitkána Duta Win
Zitkána Duta WiĹ‹, is an IsaĹ‹ti/SisĂthuĹ‹waĹ‹ Dakota and DinĂ© educator, artist, and community leader dedicated to Indigenous language and cultural revitalization. She is as a mother, wife, and relative within her communities, grounding her work in kinship and responsibility.
Her work spans immersion education, land-based learning, culturally responsive curriculum design, museum studies, and arts education. Through these efforts, she actively mobilizes and strengthens Indigenous pedagogies, supporting language, culture, and community resilience across Native nations.
Carlos Mariani Rosa
NONPROFIT AND PUBLIC SECTOR LEADERCarlos Mariani Rosa is a distinguished leader in the nonprofit and public sector. Carlos is a former longtime Minnesota lawmaker with a powerful legacy of leadership on issues affecting marginalized communities in areas such as education, economic development, and criminal justice reform.
Under his tenure as executive director, Minnesota Education Equity Partnership has increasingly strengthened its voice as a statewide authority on educational race equity in Minnesota through research on student academic outcomes and social realities, publishing policy briefs, and convening multi-cultural advocacy networks for shifting education policies and practices.
Returning Home: Living with the Lakota Language and Land
Presented by MaČźpĂya LĂşta: Zitkána Duta WiĹ‹; Monica Giago, senior; Ashlyn Carlow, senior; Wicahpi Giagio, 7th grade; Gia Weston, 7th gradeReturning Home explores how students reclaim identity through language and land. By creating spaces where their voices are valued, they strengthen community and cultural continuity. Reconnecting with land and language becomes a path to healing, belonging, and empowerment. “Home” emerges not just as a place, but as relationships, memory, and shared responsibility across many contexts.
Breakout sessions
12:00–12:50pm CT
Outdoor, Inquiry-Based, and Foundational Skills: Can You Have All Three?
Presented by GATEWOOD ELEMENTARY: Jade Johnson, Sarah Arneson, Katie Schmidt, and Dr. George NolanGatewood Elementary is working to equitably integrate outdoor learning, inquiry-based pedagogy, and interdisciplinary IB units while building strong foundations in reading and math. That means wrestling with real design tensions: How do you bring inquiry into dedicated literacy and math blocks? How do you meet a wide range of state standards through interdisciplinary units? How do you create space for student-driven projects within the constraints of a school day? This session offers an honest look at a redesign in progress—the tradeoffs, challenges, and open questions—and leaves you with concrete ideas to bring back to your setting.
Federal Education Policy Under the Trump Administration: Implications for the Student-Centered Movement
PRESENTED BY DAVID POWELL, EDUCATION FIRST; MARCUS PENNY AND AQUEELAH ROBERSON, EDUCATION EVOLVINGEducation policy is largely set at the state level. Schools are locally controlled. But the second Trump administration has asserted an expansive view of presidential authority, with eyes on remaking our education system and governing what schools can look like. In this session, David Powell from Education First will share where we are and where we’re going when it comes to federal education funding and policy. The EE team will help us interrogate the implications for equitable, student-centered schools—the very types of learning environments under the microscope.
VIDEO: SCL4E 2025 attendees share their thoughts, stories, and plans for the future
Why virtual this year?
When we needed to make a venue decision at the height of Operation Metro Surge, we decided to move 100% online to ensure more of our community can attend, and to minimally disrupt precious few remaining school days.
We hope to return to our usual event format with all the bells and whistles—including a full day in-person option—in 2027.