Updraft Downdraft

Ever wonder why there is such a big gap in the number of students who succeed in comparison to those who do not? The duality of educational experiences that permeate our secondary schools leads to one group of students heading into post-secondary education, while others either receive terminal degrees or drop out. This updraft/downdraft phenomena occurs because time, talent, and monies tend to drift into the "updraft" group's educational arena, leaving the "downdraft" students and teachers with less time to teach, fewer qualified teachers, and fewer supporters. This book provides a set of tools to assist schools and communities in reallocating their resources more effectively. Using school "artifacts," educators can collect the data and information needed to make better decisions and leverage what they have, equitably. The process of collecting, analyzing, and acting on the data described promotes more strategic decision-making about school resources. Samples of data and analyses around master schedules, student schedules, curriculum guides and other "artifacts" inside the school and district are provided.

Recommended for anyone seeking ways to understand the problems inside the public schools and ways to find solutions.

Marilyn Crawford currently operates TimeWise Schools LC, a decision-support consulting group working with schools, districts, and state departments of education across the country. She has extensive experience in leading secondary school reform as well as in supporting reform-minded educators in a variety of roles, and specializes in maximizing school-level efficiency and effectiveness in use of secondary resources. She has a PhD in education leadership from Vanderbilt University, and is joint author of The Productive High School, a synthesis of the research on secondary education currently in publication with Corwin press.

Eleanor Dougherty is senior associate with the Education Trust, a non-profit organization in Washington D.C. that serves education communities in their efforts to improve student achievement for all students. She has experience as an elementary and secondary teacher, as well as teaching in colleges and universities. For the last several years, she has worked with high-poverty districts around the country in standards-based reforms.