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Mark Siegel

Mark Siegel is assistant head at Delphian School in Sheridan, Ore., where he’s been since 1974. He has headed the Oregon Federation of Independent Schools since 1988 and served 25 years on the board of the Council for American Private Education. He's served on Oregon Department of Education task forces and helps public and private schools transition to proficiency-based student-centered models. He travels the country advocating for private education and for proficiency-based education, urging the shift from factory-model schools to more personalized, student-centered programs.

In the scramble to solve looming challenges in education regarding broadband, online learning, artificial intelligence or any number of new technologies, it’s easy to overlook astonishing improvements.
K-12 schools have long relied on homework, and in some cases competition between students, to prompt the hard work of learning and processing information. But it’s possible these tactics do more harm than good.
With U.S. schools recording their largest-ever drop in math scores and struggling students falling farther behind, the nation's education leaders should be looking for new ways to raise student proficiency.
Artificial intelligence creates new ethical challenges as quickly as it does opportunities in the education space. The movement for competency-based education could use the same urgency and innovation.
With emerging, data-driven approaches to instruction and mounting evidence of learning loss during the pandemic, K-12 schools should question the wisdom of putting all students through the same classes at the same pace.
With an ever-expanding list of technology tools being implemented in classrooms, school IT departments may face growing demands for tech support, but certain best practices and resources can ease the burden.
The concept of a “portrait of a graduate” begs the question, what kind of citizens do we want coming out of the K-12 pipeline? The answer should guide decisions going forward and be an ongoing community conversation.
With students spending most of their waking hours interacting with technology, educators must think critically about its appropriate use and discuss with students the cost of relying so much on these tools.
As learning loss and behavioral issues have gotten worse over years of disruption to normal classroom routines, the need for educators to model compassion and understanding is greater than ever.
Operational changes forced by COVID-19 proved schools can shift gears when they have to. Given all that educators have learned about the limits of one-size-fits-all instruction, now is a time for exploring alternatives.