Matt Gandal, the executive vice president for Achieve, is leaving the organization after 14 years for a job at the U.S. Department of Education, where he’ll manage technical assistance for Race to the Top.

Achieve has been heavily involved in developing common standards and is a key player in one of the consortia developing common assessments.

Justin Hamilton, a spokesman for the department, tells me Gandal will be working with Ann Whalen, a top adviser to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in the department’s new “Implementation and Support Unit.”

The “ISU” (sounds like a crime drama, right?) is charged with with providing a new level of assistance in helping states implement the department’s programs, including the Race to the Top and the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The goal of the new unit, Whalen told me in an earlier interview, is to figure out how to work more closely with states on program implementation and to help them use the funds to “advance meaningful reforms.”