Shawn T. Loescher, Ed.D.
About
Shawn T. Loescher is an American Educational Research Association (AERA) awarded scholarly practitioner in the field of action research and sciences with over 30 years of experience. He began his career as an educator as a teacher’s aide at the age of 17—a path that led to P/K-12 teaching, adjunct professorship, administrative work, and cabinet-level school district leadership in a diverse group of settings, schools, and education systems domestically and abroad. Dr. Loescher has a proven record of successful educational leadership having served as a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Assistant Superintendent, District Executive Director, District Director, Program Specialist, Principal, and Academy Director. He has been a presenter to the California Senate Education Committee on the topic of career readiness and post-secondary preparedness. He has served as a member of think tank groups and special committees for groups such as the International Center for Leadership in Education and the Center for Secondary School Redesign.
The internationally renowned TED (Technology, Entertainment & Design) organization named Dr. Loescher as one of their 16 worldwide awardees for the TED-Ed Innovative Educators in the 2019-2020 school year. He recorded his talk at the TED Summit in Edinburgh Scotland in July 2019. Dr. Loescher is a sought after keynote speaker and has been featured by the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Arizona State University, University of California, and Indiana Youth Institute. His research was featured at the 2018 AERA annual meeting in New York City and his work Hope as Strategy: The Effectiveness of an Innovation of the Mind was named the AERA Action Research Special Interest Group Dissertation of the Year for 2020. For his innovative educational work in response to the pandemic, Dr. Loescher was a featured author and was interviewed by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Arizona State University, University of Colorado, Indiana University, and Kansas State University project known as the Silver Lining for Learning project for educational innovation.
Dr. Loescher has been responsible for the effective implementation and sustainability of multiple federal, state, and private/non-profit grants. He has extensive experience on college and career readiness, workforce development, and pathway alignment. He earned his Doctorate in Education with a focus on leadership and innovation at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University. He currently serves as the Assistant Superintendent of a large school district with a focus on excellence and innovation in education in the greater San Diego Metropolitan region.
Current Leadership Work
As the Assistant Superintendent of Vista Unified School District, Dr. Loescher has been entrusted by the District Superintendent and Board of Trustees with the overarching district operation with a focus on excellence and innovation. With 29 schools serving nearly 20,000 students from preschool to 12th grade, five additional schools serving over 3,000 children operate as independent charter schools authorized by Vista Unified. Vista Unified also includes one of the county's largest adult-education programs with approximately 25,000 students enrolled each year. Dr. Loescher works collaboratively with the executive team, community, and Board of Trustees on special projects with a three year budget projection of approximately 300 million dollars through local Proposition LL and various sources to provide world-class learning environments for students, teachers, and the community.
Learn more about this work at:
Listing of Sample Publications and Presentations
- Loescher, S. T. (2024, October). Hope, hopelessness, and the silence in between. Announcement coming soon!
- Loescher, S. T., & Medina, C. (2021, April). Design thinking as constructivist practice: Implications for T/K-12 educators. Annual Meeting 2021 of the American Educational Research Association, Online.
- Loescher, S. T. (2021, January). Reimagining and design schools for equity. A TED-ED Chat. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
- Loescher, S. T. (2020, December). Advancing innovation for educational institutions and community-based organizations: From an innovators outlook and disposition to sustainable environments that embrace change. KIDS COUNT Conference, Indiana Youth Institute, Indianapolis, IN. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29160.08965
- Loescher, S. T. (2020, September). The innovator’s mind and disposition: How to engage in a paradigm-shattering event for educators and youth workers. Keynote Presentation, Adapting to Change: Strategies for Leading and Learning During a Pandemic, Indiana Youth Institute, Indianapolis, IN. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14899.45600
- Loescher, S. T. (2021, January). What is our through-line? How a global pandemic creates an opportunity to reimagine education and society as it should be. A TED-ED Innovative Educators. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
- Loescher, S. T. (2020). From risk-averse to risk immersed: Leading schools through a paradigm-shattering event (Part 2 : Digital abstraction and student learning). Silver Lining for Education, Conversations About the Future of Education.
- Loescher, S. T. (2020, May). Action research as praxis: From being to becoming. Keynote Presentation, Doctoral Research Conference at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
- Loescher, S. T. (2020). From risk-adverse to risk immersed: Leading schools through a paradigm-shattering event (part 1). Silver Linings for Education, Conversations About the Future of Education, 1(5). Available at: shorturl.at/jFY17
- Loescher, S. T. (2020, April). Hope as strategy: An action research dissertation. Award and presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
- Loescher, S. T. (2019, July). Embrace ambiguity! Why predictive metrics aren’t helping. A TED-Ed Innovative Educators TED Talk at the TED Summit, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
- Loescher, S. T. (2019, May). Theory to practice: Design thinking for organizational and community development. Presentation for the University of California at San Diego Design Lab professional speakers series, San Diego CA. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.16262.63046
- Loescher, S. T. (2019, February). Re-designing the educational experience: Design thinking, participatory action research, and pedagogies of hope. Keynote presentation for the Center for Secondary School Redesign annual meeting, San Diego, CA. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36395.28965
- Loescher, S. T. (2019, February). Policy to practice: Design thinking in K-12 education. Paper session to be presented at the Center for Secondary School Redesign annual meeting, San Diego, CA. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36581.65769/1
- Loescher, S.T., Morris, M., & Lerner, T. (2019, February). Design thinking: Implications and applications in educational institutions. Paper session to be presented at the Center for Secondary School Redesign annual meeting, San Diego, CA.
- Loescher, S. T. (2018). Hope as strategy: The effectiveness of an innovation of the mind (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest.
- Loescher, S. T. (2018, April). Hope as strategy: Inter-views of urban education, how perspective guides actions for students labeled high needs. Paper session to be presented at the Arizona State University, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Doctoral Research Conference, Tempe, AZ.
- Loescher, S. T. (2018, April). Hope as strategy: Initial actions in reforming a district’s Course of Study to clarify pathway. Paper session to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.
- Loescher, S. T. (2017, April). Hope as strategy: Initial findings of an action research systems review. Paper session presented at the Arizona State University, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Doctoral Research Conference, Tempe, AZ.
- Loescher, S. T., & McDonnell, L. (2014). College, Career & Technical Education annual report 2014. San Diego, CA: San Diego Unified School District.
- Loescher, S. T. (2013). Environment of change: Identification of factors for a teacher initiated move to Project Based Learning. La Jolla, CA: National University. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26624.64006.
- Loescher, S. T., & Eves, V. (2009). College and career ready: A guide to postsecondary success. San Diego, CA: San Diego Unified School District.
- Loescher, S. T., & Eves, V. (2007). College, Career & Technical Education annual report 2007. San Diego, CA: San Diego Unified School District. • Loescher, S. T., & Medina, C. (2021, April). Design thinking as constructivist practice: Implications for T/K-12 educators. Annual Meeting 2021 of the American Educational Research Association, Online.
Research Interests
My primary research interest pertains to change agent leadership to develop systems and environments where innovative practice can thrive. My theoretical framework explores how Hope Theory (Snyder, 2002) may provide a means of navigating the elements of social oppression that may be embedded within Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1994; 1977).