Education News Update Under the New Presidential Administration

An independent research arm within the U.S. Department of Education is being all but shut down, employees of the department say. The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is responsible for gathering and disseminating data on a wide range of topics, including research-backed teaching practices and the state of U.S. student achievement. Many contracts have already been canceled, according to two employees briefed on the moves. The employees said they learned of the cuts at an emergency meeting called Monday afternoon by leaders of IES, a nonpartisan division of the Education Department that includes the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

The research collected by IES is used by educators, state and local departments of education, school districts, colleges and other researchers to better understand student achievement, enrollment, and a host of other important functions that shape the education system in this country. In the Monday meeting, employees were told that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a unit within the Trump administration run by Elon Musk, plans to cancel most of IES’ contracts.

Employees described a somber mood where some fought back tears, and others raised questions about the future of IES. One of the employees said all of the contracts they oversee have been terminated. “So it begs the question, what will this mean for our jobs?” Another employee was skeptical of the idea that these cuts would lead to more efficiency. “If they’re doing this to save government money, they are wasting millions today. All the money we have spent working on these products, down the drain.”

“It’s shocking, it’s pointless,” said Thomas Weko, a former commissioner at the NCES, referring to the halt in important research work. He added that the creation of IES was “an attempt to put our understanding of education on a scientific footing with other fields of knowledge like medicine.” If contracts tied to IES and NCES are indeed terminated, and its research becomes unavailable online, a trove of data gathered over many decades about the state of education in the U.S. could become difficult to access. It’s unclear what these contract terminations would mean for future data collection.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will be preserved, at least for now. NAEP, also known as The Nation’s Report Card, is the gold standard in assessments of student achievement and releases widely used data on how K-12 students are faring in core subjects including math and reading. President Trump has repeatedly said he plans to close the Education Department, which employs more than 4,000 people and has an annual budget of $79 billion.

He told Fox News in an interview, “I’m going to tell [Elon Musk] very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He’s going to find the same thing. Then I’m going to go, go to the military. Let’s check the military. We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse.”

In recent days, administration officials also placed dozens of Education Department employees on paid administrative leave with little explanation. At the time, the White House confirmed the president’s plans to shutter programs within the department that are not protected by law and his plans to call on Congress to close the department entirely.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services