It's been rumored before, but I'm hearing that it's a done deal: John Easton, currently head of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, will lead the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. He's still going through the vetting process, but unless he's failed to pay a whole lot of taxes, he should be moving into Russ Whitehurst's old office soon. I don't know much about Easton, but the Consortium enjoys a strong reputation for policy research. That research, it should be noted, is typically of the non-random-assignment variety, as much policy research has to be. (It's hard to randomly select kids or schools to be subject to accountability, for example.) So perhaps this will reflect a shift at IES, away from uber-scientific studies of discreet classroom interventions, and towards more interest in studying systemic reform.
