The Strength-Indicator
A four-audience survey that shows each school where student-centered learning is strong — and where it's growing. Results come back as a clear, automated report, ready to share with staff, students, and families.
Take a tourA Minnesota network
Learner-centered schools,
stronger together.
MLCN connects Minnesota educators, students, and partners who put learners at the center — a network to see your strengths, share what's working, and gather with schools doing the same.
Mission, vision & values
Educators and students, transforming learning together.
Our mission is to connect and empower educators and students to disrupt systemic racism and to transform learning environments to be student-centered; equitable, relevant, engaging and designed with and for all students.
Our vision is an anti-racist society and a just world through an equitable, anti-racist education.
Promote belonging
MLCN members honor the humanity of student-centered learning — recognizing and valuing the uniqueness of each person and school they represent.
Bridge people, schools, organizations
MLCN members align the supporting work of partner organizations to the needs of school practitioners — collaborating around new ideas and learning together.
Celebrate storytelling
MLCN members lift the stories of students and teachers creating the narrative of the student-centered learning movement.
Acknowledge systemic racism
MLCN members recognize the current educational system is based on the values of white culture that perpetuates oppression through racist policy, practice, and bias.
What we do
A network with tools.
MLCN is more than a directory. Three connected surfaces help member schools see, share, and grow learner-centered practice across Minnesota.
The Network
A directory of MLCN member schools and partners. A map of learner-centered Minnesota. Profiles, stories, ways to connect.
Explore the network
Shared Practice
Member-contributed resources, student project showcases, and school visits. Tagged by principle, searchable by what matters.
Browse the libraryThe spine
Seven principles of student-centered learning.
Researched and defined by our partners at Education Evolving. A common language, not a prescription — adapted by each school to fit its students, its place, its people.
Framework defined by Education Evolving.
Positive Relationships
Every student is known well by at least one adult who walks alongside them.
Read moreFoundational Needs Met
Bellies fed, bodies safe, identities held — the floor under everything else.
Read morePositive Identity
Students see themselves — language, history, community — reflected in the work.
Read moreStudent Agency & Ownership
Learners drive choices about what, how, when, and with whom they learn.
Read moreReal-World Relevant
Problems worth solving, sourced from the places students actually live.
Read moreCompetency-Based
Students advance when they've shown they can do the work — not when the calendar says so.
Read moreAnytime, Anywhere Learning
School isn't only the building or the bell. Learning travels with the learner.
Read more
Around the network
Schools doing the work.
A statewide network — charter, district, alternative — from the Twin Cities to the rural southeast. A rotating look at member schools doing the work.
Minnesota New Country School
Self-actualization through purposeful relationships, community, and student-led project-based learning. Teachers share ownership of the school as a collaborative — no single principal.
Northern Lights
Pseudonymized historical school for methodology verification.
Elementary · Middle · High school
Northwest Passage High School
Project-based and experiential learning with field studies and overnight expeditions. Teacher-powered governance, long-term advisories of 15–16 students per teacher.
High school
Student voice
Real projects.
Real students.
Real-world ready.
A growing archive of work from MLCN classrooms — public defenses, prototypes, performances, fieldwork. Browse by principle, subject, or grade.
For Minnesota schools
Ready to join the network?
School-level membership unlocks the Strength-Indicator tool, member-only resources, and access to schools doing this work alongside yours. Free for the 2026–27 pilot year.
Joining as an individual? Free member accounts are open — no school required.