News in Brief

Evers Wins Senate Confirmation for Education Department Post

October 23, 2007

The U.S. Senate last week confirmed by voice vote Williamson M. Evers to serve as assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development in the U.S. Department of Education, a position vacant since Thomas W. Luce III resigned last year.

Mr. Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2003 he served in Iraq as a senior adviser for education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer III of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some educators who worked with him in the past have characterized Mr. Evers as difficult to work with and worried his personal style could hinder his ability to be effective at the department. ("From ‘Math Wars’ to the Political Trenches?," Feb. 21, 2007.)