CHAMPAIGN,Ill. - John Q. Easton will discuss his most recent book, "Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons From Chicago," in two lectures at the University of Illinois next week.
Easton is the director of the Institute of Education Sciences - the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education - which encompasses four national centers conducting educational research and evaluation. IES also funds hundreds of studies on methods for improving academic achievement. President Barack Obama nominated Easton for the directorship in 2009.
Prior to the IES appointment, Easton was a founding member and eventually the executive director of the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, part of the school's Urban Education Institute, where he conducted research into trends in achievement test scores and the use of test scores for school accountability. While affiliated with the consortium, Easton co-wrote a study on the relationship between freshman-year academic performance and high school graduation that helped shape educational policy across the nation.
Easton was the director of research for the Chicago Panel on School Policy from 1989 to 1994, for which he led a study of the effects of decentralization on Chicago public schools. He later directed Chicago Public Schools' department of research, analysis and assessment.
From 2003 to 2007, Easton served on the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policies for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card.
"Organizing Schools for Improvement" examines Chicago's 20-year experiment in public school decentralization, evaluating 100 elementary schools that improved and 100 that did not. Easton also is a co-author of "Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism as a Lever for Change."
Easton will speak on "Conducting Research to Improve Practice and Policy in Education" at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 5 (Wednesday) in Room 2 of the Education Building, 1310 S. Sixth St., Champaign.
At noon on Oct. 6 (Thursday), he will speak on "Organizing Schools for Improvement" in Room 22 of the Education Building.
Both lectures will be followed by question-and-answer sessions.
The lectures are sponsored by the College of Education and are free and open to the public.
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