The Obama administration last week announced two picks for major posts in the U.S. .
John Q. Easton, the executive director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, has been tapped to head the . And a community college administrator, Martha J. Kanter, has been named as President Barack Obama鈥檚 choice for the third-in-command position of undersecretary of education.
An Education Department official confirmed that Ms. Kanter, who has worked for more than 30 years in community colleges across the nation, will take on the higher education portfolio at the department.
If his nomination is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Mr. Easton will be only the second administrator to head the $617 million-a-year institute, which was created in 2002 to serve as the department鈥檚 main research arm.
The research consortium that Mr. Easton currently heads was founded in 1990 and is widely known for its nonpartisan research aimed at improving Chicago鈥檚 public school system. Its pioneering model of a researcher-practitioner partnership is now being replicated in New York City, New Orleans, and other cities.
As the executive director of the group for the past six years, Mr. Easton worked closely with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan when he was Chicago鈥檚 schools chief. Before that, he also worked alongside Mr. Duncan鈥檚 predecessor in the district, Paul G. Vallas.
鈥淛ohn Easton gave me some good news, and he gave me some bad news,鈥� said Mr. Vallas, who now heads New Orleans鈥� Recovery School District. 鈥淏ut the great thing about him was that he never politicized the news.鈥�
Shift of Focus?
Some observers said Mr. Easton鈥檚 nomination signals a shift in direction for the institute, which, under its first director, Grover J. 鈥淩uss鈥� Whitehurst, campaigned to transform education into an 鈥渆vidence based鈥� field and expand the use of experimental studies, known as randomized controlled trials.
鈥淩uss was an experimental psychologist who brought that model to federal research,鈥� said Gerald E. Sroufe, the government-relations director for the Washington-based American Educational Research Association. 鈥淭he [Chicago] consortium鈥檚 work has focused on evaluative research that is intended to figure out what we need to do to make the system work better, and not so much on determining whether something had demonstrated its efficacy.鈥�
Yet Mr. Easton said he had no plans to 鈥渢hrow out anything.鈥�
鈥淚 hope to build on and expand the research that鈥檚 been done鈥攑erhaps by incorporating more multi-method research鈥攚ithout losing any of the rigor that the department has made a priority,鈥� he said.
Ms. Kanter now serves as the chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, in Los Altos Hills, Calif., a system that serves 44,000 students a year.
Community colleges enroll about half of the nation鈥檚 undergraduates and serve about 5 million other adults earning General Educational Development, or GED, credentials and learning job skills. But past U.S. secretaries of education have not typically recruited talent from among those institutions鈥� administrative ranks.
In several recent speeches, however, President Obama has highlighted community colleges鈥� role, which includes offering associate degrees and credits transferable to four-year institutions. (鈥淧resident鈥檚 Education Aims Aired,鈥� March 4, 2009.)
鈥楶resident鈥檚 President鈥�
The choice of Ms. Kanter sends a signal that the Obama administration wants to make community colleges an important part of an overall strategy for delivering at least a year of postsecondary education for every student, said Gail O. Mellow, the president of La Guardia Community College in New York City.
鈥淪he is a superb choice鈥攕he鈥檚 like a community college鈥檚 president鈥檚 president,鈥� she said of Ms. Kanter. 鈥淚 think most of us in community college higher education are just delighted with her.鈥�
In particular, Ms. Mellow underscored Ms. Kanter鈥檚 commitment not just to increasing access to community colleges, but also to improving outcomes for those who attend them.
鈥淪he has really been committed to finding ways to move students through an educational sequence that results in something鈥攁n increase in their wages, or a degree, or a certificate,鈥� Ms. Mellow said.
Ms. Kanter appears to be less well-known inside Washington.
鈥淚鈥檓 certainly delighted to learn of her accomplishments at her institution, but I have not run into her name on the issues that I think she鈥檚 going to be working on,鈥� said Barmak Nassirian, the associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
Such issues will likely include overseeing implementation of policy changes to the Higher Education Act, which Congress renewed last year. That bill altered grant programs and accountability provisions for institutions that prepare teachers; the seven college-access programs known collectively as TRIO; and the federal student-lending programs, among other areas. (鈥淐ongress Approves New HEA.鈥� Aug. 13, 2008.)
Ms. Kanter鈥檚 new job comes with new challenges, too, such as pushing forward on Mr. Obama鈥檚 fiscal 2010 budget request, which proposes to make drastic changes to federal student-lending and financial-aid programs.
The budget request would, for instance, seek to eliminate a private-lender subsidy program and to originate all student loans in the Direct Lending Program, in which students borrow from the U.S. Treasury.
