Just Because Education’s Wicked Problems Are Intimidating Doesn’t Mean They Aren’t Worth Solving

Interconnected Complexity Requires Collective Intelligence

Leading EdTech companies over the years, one truth remains clear to me: effective innovation to solve persistent problems must include educators. As schools navigate an increasingly complicated tech landscape—made even more challenging by mounting “AI fatigue”—it’s more critical than ever to ensure we’re not overwhelming educators with technology, but instead empowering them with the tools they want to use. In dynamic and motivated teams, eager to make positive impacts and to tackle the challenges educators face in classrooms, the voice of the student and the educator provides a vital feedback loop, and here’s why.

Education globally faces more than its fair share of “wicked problems“— a term coined by urban planners to describe complex challenges that resist simple, quick-fix solutions. Teacher attrition, literacy proficiency, math ability, curriculum relevance, and chronic absenteeism are just a few examples. By definition, these problems are too complex to solve neatly, but we can work towards addressing the parts of the problem that have the biggest impact and go from there. Let’s start with literacy and numeracy. Without these core competencies, life skills can’t flourish. And we need life skills to make a big impact on interconnected and complex problems.

At MetaMetrics we provide the scales for literacy and numeracy, so everyone can cultivate the skills they need to thrive in a dynamic world. Our unique position providing reading and math measures across the education ecosystem affords the opportunity to research and understand education problems from all angles. State partners, education partners, educators, and parents provide vital expertise. Working together, we have the opportunity to create a research environment with multiple stakeholders’ opinions on a problem and how they would tackle it.

So what are some examples of impactful R&D uniting MetaMetrics with educators? MetaMetrics is investing in exciting projects in several areas, including the careers space and in generative AI. We are working with educators struggling to spark an engagement effect between career interests and day-to-day learning. And in generative-AI, we are working with educators and content creators who seek to more rapidly adapt text complexity to different grade and ability levels.

I am delighted to join an esteemed panel of education experts as we continue this conversation during the ASU+GSV Summit 2025 session, Collective Intelligence: Impactful R&D Uniting Educators & EdTechs. We’ll get to discuss interconnected and complex issues, and explore practical examples of how collective intelligence and partnerships are progressing solutions that actually stick. I hope to see you there.