Another Chicagoan set to join education team in Washington

On Thursday the White House announced that John Q. Easton, the executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, will be nominated by President Barack Obama to a six-year term as director of the Institute of Education Sciences.

The announcement marks the third Chicagoan to join Obama's education task force in D.C. The Chicago education brain drain began in December when former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan was tapped by Obama to become education secretary. More recently, Hideout owner Tim Tuten secured a job with Duncan.

The Institute funds hundreds of evaluations and studies on how to improve academic performance and provides assessments and statistics that are invaluable to scholars and education policy makers. As director, Easton would oversee four major national centers, a 200-person staff and partnerships with institutions nationwide, according to a U of C press release.

Easton has already made an impact on education as director of the CCSR. He directed numerous studies aimed at finding evidence for what is needed for continuous improvement in urban education. CCSR is considered to be the nation's most successful model for cooperation between academic researchers and an urban public school system.

“They are not ivory tower researchers,” Duncan said of CCSR in a 2003 Education Week article. “These are people who roll up their sleeves and get out to the schools and conduct research that is applicable to real situations.” [University of Chicago, Sun-Times]

Easton shares his thoughts on urban education reform and his work as director of the Consortium in an interview.