Embracing ambiguity: Why predictive metrics aren't helping
Shawn Loescher
Last year, Arizona State University alumnus Shawn Loescher presented his TED-Ed talk at the TEDSummit in Edinburgh, Scotland. Loescher, CEO of Urban Discovery Schools, was one of just 16 extraordinary innovators worldwide recognized by the TED-Ed Innovative Educator program for his leadership in advancing education.
Loescher, a graduate of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, leads Urban Discovery Schools, an inner-city pre-K–12 school system that embraces a design thinking-based curriculum developed with student input.
Loescher’s talk, “Embrace ambiguity! Why predictive metrics aren't helping,” recounts how the tumultuous experience of his child being born prematurely taught him to embrace ambiguity.
In the neonatal intensive care unit, each new diagnosis from a specialist came with a predictive metric for his child’s future.
“Let me tell you, it has been wrong more times than not," he said. “I was reminded how not to confuse statistical probability with human possibility,” he said.
More Arts, humanities and education
Kaleidoscope short film contest inspires powerful binational filmmaking in its second year
“We come to this country not to steal anybody’s jobs but to take advantage of the opportunities that the rest ignore. We’ve been…
School of Social Transformation faculty member assumes new title with NSF
School of Social Transformation faculty member and Founding Executive Director of the Center for Gender Equity in Science…
ASU's Neal Lester reflects on life, death of poet Nikki Giovanni
When Neal Lester heard on Monday that poet and activist Nikki Giovanni had died, the news hit hard.Lester, the founding director…