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John Q. Easton

Director of the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education (since May 2009)

(Department of Ed)

Why He Matters

In 1990, Easton was a founding member of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR), a research organization whose mission is to rigorously analyze the policies that governed Chicago Public Schools. For two decades, he was a key member and eventually director of the consortium as its research guided policies for Chicago's schools and districts around the country.

When the consortium showed that high-school graduation rates are directly linked to success during freshman year, then-CEO of Chicago Public Schools Arne Duncan, now the secretary of Education, targeted money for programs for high-school freshmen. The research "spread like wildfire across the country," and districts around the country came to Easton for intervention tips.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: Executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research (2002 to 2009); Deputy director of the CCSR (1997 to 2002); Director of the Department of Research, Evaluation and Assessment at Chicago Public School (1994 to 1997); Director of Monitoring and Research at the Chicago Penal on School Policy (1989 to 1994); Research specialist at the Department of Equal Educational Opportunity at Chicago Public Schools (1984 to 1989); Director of Research at the Center for Teaching and Learning at City Colleges of Chicago (1981 to 1984)
Alma Mater: Hobart College, B.A., 1971; Western Washington State College, M.S., 1973; University of Chicago, Ph.D., 1981

Web site

Path to Power

Easton earned a B.A. from Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., in 1971 and an M.S. from Western Washington University two years later. In 1973, he moved to Hyde Park in Chicago to get a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, and he never left. He earned a Ph.D. in measurement, evaluation, and statistical analysis in 1981.

While finishing his dissertation, he worked as a consultant for the Department of Research and Evaluation at Chicago Public Schools (CPS). From there, his resume reads like a list of education research jobs. In 1981, he became the director of research at the Center for Teaching and Learning at City College of Chicago, and he left in 1984 for another job as a research specialist at CPS, this time with CPS's Department of Equal Educational Opportunity.

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The Issues

The Institute of Education Sciences was created in 2002 "to provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education." The institute is under the direction of the National Board for Education Sciences and is housed in the Education Department, though it is by law a non-partisan organization. It describes its mission as providing "rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy."

Easton oversees a staff of 200 who conduct research projects and manage the funding for grants the department gives to outside researchers. Institute aides attend conferences and also publish the results of their studies in newsletters, reports and handbooks.

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Consortium on Chicago School Research

The job is very similar to the one Easton has held for nearly two decades with the Consortium on Chicago School Research, which Easton helped found. That organization had a much narrower focus: on the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, and more specifically, on the effects of the decentralized school government two years after the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, which shifted power from the centralized school board to the local schools.

"We do not narrowly evaluate policies, but rather carry out studies of specific policies in order to explore broader issues in education," the CCSR Web site says. The Consortium is an independent group run by the University of Chicago, but CPS is the target of both its research and its results, and the school system takes the consortium's reports very seriously. "They are not ivory tower researchers," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who was formerly the CEO of Chicago's schools. "These are people who roll up their sleeves and get out to the schools and conduct research that is applicable to real situations."

After the CCSR issued a study indicating a correlation between success in freshman year of high school and graduation rates, then CEO of Chicago Public Schools Duncan quickly developed a series of programs to assist high-school freshmen, including a controversial program to pay students for good grades.

In the two decades since its founding, the consortium has conducted hundreds of research projects. When asked to name the organization's "greatest hits," Easton pointed to a study on school reform as the one that "made our name and captured the public's attention and allowed us to secure funding."

The study divided elementary schools into roughly three categories: one-third that embraced reform, one-third that was close to adapting to reform and one-third that was "left behind by school reform." The study was released before Duncan's time as CEO of Chicago's schools. But during his tenure, Duncan created the Renaissance 2010 program that focused on the bottom third of Chicago schools. In some cases, Duncan shut down schools in the bottom category and reopened them under different names.

Easton said he was also particularly proud of the work demonstrating that students whose teachers assigned more demanding assignments produced better work than students who were given easier assignments, regardless of whether the assignments were distributed in an advanced or a remedial class.

The Network

Easton has known Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan for many years. When Duncan returned to Chicago, he began working with Ariel Investments, the company of John W. Rogers Jr., to develop the Ariel Community School, and he asked the consortium for data about school performance. Duncan and Easton have had a working relationship since then and Easton's research informed Duncan's policies as head of Chicago Public Schools.

Campaign Contributions

Easton donated $250 to Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle, the only money he has donated to political campaigns, according to public records.

Additional Resources