Know Better World Foundation

Empowering New Leaders for a New World Through Education

“Our sense-making of reality needs reframing. What becomes increasingly clear to me each day is that we need to reframe and reconstruct our methods of sense-making and understanding what we call reality.

This requires a more sophisticated type of relevance recognition than we are accustomed to. This is something that generative AI won't be able to do for us. 

The SQUIRCLE framework as applied to education by the Know Better World Foundation Initiative can clearly help us with this important challenge.”

Olli-Pekka Heinonen, 
Director General, International Baccalaureate Organization
Former Minister of Education, Finland

Today’s Challenges; Tomorrow’s Imperatives

  • Balancing external pressure, staff shortages, and a volatile environment inside and outside our schools, it’s no wonder that many educators are exhausted and overwhelmed. Teaching and leadership ranks are severely depleted. Morale is low and frustration is high.

    Political divisiveness and artificially enflamed discourse drives school board agendas from coast to coast, while the pressure to drive academic results is relentless. A June 2024 article at weareteachers.com reports that 90 percent schools surveyed indicated that they struggle to find and hire qualified teachers.

  • The focus on core academics, while necessary, is not sufficient to produce the expansive growth students will need to be the leaders of tomorrow. A 2023 WestEd report on early adopter states’ use of more holistic graduation requirements indicates the coming change in scope and expansion of conventional competencies. Our solution and framework ensure that educators have the resources to meet these new challenges..

    Beyond an insufficient curriculum, learner engagement falters in the face of expectations detached from real world concerns. A 2023 Gradient Learning report sites a full 50 percent of students said that they were not engaged in what they are learning in school most of the time. Eighty percent of teachers name lack of student engagement as a primary concern. A 2024 report in EdWeek names student disengagement as the #1 barrier to learning based on a survey of school leaders conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The individual needs, motivation and inspiration of each child are lost in the undertow of an endless sea of academic data. Our initiative promises a solution.

  • Through a program that restores respect for the individual potential of all learners and educators as well, we take a giant step toward empowered and capable leadership for the future. Through resources that help to strengthen teacher teams and generate parent and community support for schools, we help to revitalize the appeal of education as a path for our future workforce, and support retention of highly qualified teachers and leaders. Through an innovative approach to pedagogy built on research-proven practices, we empower learners to uncover authentic and exciting new learning strengths and pathways, enabling them to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

A Better Way for Educators and Learners

Know Better World Foundation offers programs and tools based on the same framework and principles pressure tested with for profit and non-profit organizations on five continents over 20 years, delivering the kind of breakthrough results featured in three best selling books now published in four languages.

 

Leaders & Coaches

We help leaders to make informed decisions using an elevated model for self-reflection, collaboration, and complex problem-solving.

Classroom Teachers

We empower teachers with the tools to build collective efficacy and to create classrooms full of engagement and possibility.

Students

We enable students to develop keen self-awareness that enhances empowerment and agency as well as learning outcomes.