IES Director to Leave Government for Spencer Foundation

John Q. Easton, director of the U.S. Education Department's research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences, will leave the government to join the Spencer Foundation this fall. Easton, who formerly headed the University of Chicago's Consortium on Chicago School Research, was the second director of IES, which houses the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Center for Education Research, among other entities. Spencer focuses on research-based improvement in education.