Facing the Future Programs
We work within the existing education system to help elementary, middle and high school teachers engage their students in learning core subjects through a global issues and sustainability context. Our surveys show that our materials make a positive impact on students and teachers: 91% of teachers reported improvement in their teaching after using FTF materials and 74% reported an increase in student achievement in core subject matter; 88% of teachers said that FTF resources improved their students’ critical thinking skills; and 90% stated that student engagement in their classrooms increased. Our research shows that the teachers we partner with typically work with an average of 85 students a year and that once teachers integrate our resources into their classrooms and programs, they usually use them for at least four years.
Curriculum Resources: We provide teacher’s guides, student texts, full lesson plans, and assessment measures on sustainability and global issues. Our high quality and innovative curriculum resources are designed by teachers, field tested in classrooms before distribution, and edited for cultural competence. Resources are free or low cost and many are available to download from our website. Please see our website for samples.
Professional Development Workshops for Teachers: We offer professional development for teachers on how to integrate global issues and sustainable solutions into their classrooms. Our trainings provide practical instruction and proven techniques to engage students and promote critical thinking, problem solving and global awareness. Both our curricula and our workshops are designed for K-12 educators for use in almost every subject area.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Facing the Future has increased the number of students reached by more than five-fold since 2005, totaling more than 1.8 million in 2012. We've increased our curriculum portfolio with recently developed resources for math and English classrooms. These resources draw students into sustainability topics while serving teachers' needs to improve student academic achievement. During this time we've also increased earned revenue to >1/5 of our income.
Current organizational needs include expanding our Peer Educator program which is a program that supports volunteer classroom teachers to attend education conferences and conduct professional development training for their peers on our behalf to increase our reach. We currently have 30 Peer Educators. Expanding this program will allow us to provide more training and resources for current Peer Educators and recruit new Peer Educators. We are also investigating new digital platforms for delivery of curriculum and training that allows for more flexible, interactive teaching and learning along with real-time assessments to gauge student learning and teacher effectiveness.