edWebinars
«Back to all edWebinars- This event has passed.
Student-Centered Schools: An Inventory for School Transformation
Thursday, June 12, 2025 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Ryan Cordia, Principal, Northeast Career and Technical Academy, Clark County School District (NV); Roxane Thomas, Assistant Principal, Northeast Career and Technical Academy, Clark County School District (NV); and Matthew Hickson, Former School Leader, Current Head of Partner Transformation, Modern Classrooms Project
Sponsored by The Modern Classrooms Project
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Gone are the days when learning meant students sitting at their desks in neat rows, simply absorbing knowledge from the teacher at the front of the room. We now know that learning should be more active—it should be differentiated and personalized to the student; it should operate at their learning pace and help them achieve mastery. It’s one thing to know what learning should look like, but it’s another to design school communities that actually create student-centered learning.
The Modern Classrooms Project has partnered with dozens of schools across the country to rethink instruction that centers students with mastery-based, self-paced, and blended-learning approaches. In this edWebinar, the MCP team shares their new School Transformation Inventory and opportunities for leaders to continue growing their school’s capacity for student-centered learning. Leaders have the opportunity to join the MCP Leadership Collaborative Network, free of cost.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to K-12 school and district leaders.
About the Presenters
Dr. Ryan Cordia is the inaugural Principal at Northeast Career and Technical Academy in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The school is the first in the Clark County School District to implement in-person, self-paced, mastery blended learning through the Modern Classrooms Project model in core classes, which breaks the Carnegie Unit. Students complete one of ten CTE pathways and graduate on time with career and college readiness. Students learn at different rates, and the flexible instructional model allows all students to access the support needed while shortening the timeline from freshman orientation to revenue generation. He has worked in education for 17 years across the country. Dr. Cordia believes in the power of career programs to set students on a path to success, providing access to high-skill work, affordable college, and military careers. He loves working with students and creating exceptional schools that unlock every stakeholder’s potential. In the spring of 2025, Dr. Cordia won the NASSP Principal of the Year for Nevada. In 2022, Dr. Cordia’s school won Top Magnet School in America by MSA, and he won the Nevada ACTE Administrator of the Year and the Clark County School District Principal of the Year.
Roxane Thomas is the Assistant Principal at Northeast CTA, where she supports the English, Math, Social Studies, and Science Departments in implementing schoolwide mastery learning. She is a collaborative learning strategy enthusiast—“I love a good jigsaw, four corners, or fishbowl discussion!”—and a strong advocate for teacher autonomy and creativity to make learning engaging and fun for students of all ages.
Matthew Hickson is a community organizer turned school leader. He believes in leveraging the power of education to build more joyful, purposeful, and just communities. In more than a decade of work in North Carolina, he has organized movements for student-centered education both inside and outside of school buildings. Matt was the Durham Public Schools Beginning Teacher of the Year before becoming a principal and central services director. He served as Vice Chair for the Board of Directors at Student U and the Chair for Innovation for the DPS Foundation. When not organizing and agitating, Matt is an avid Buffalo Bills fan and dog dad to Archie. He currently resides in Washington, DC.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Join the Leadership and Innovation community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
The Modern Classrooms Project empowers educators to implement a self-paced, mastery-based instructional model that leverages technology to foster human connection, authentic learning, and social-emotional growth.
