Trump administration targets Education Department research arm in latest cuts

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. They shared screenshots with NPR of emails sent on Monday notifying them of terminated contracts.

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 employees asked that their names not be used because they feared for their jobs.

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. Two employees shared screenshots of emails summoning them to that meeting.

Employees described a somber mood where some fought back tears, and others raised questions about the future of IES.

One of the employees who spoke with NPR 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.”

NPR reached out to the Department of Education, and to the White House, for comment. The White House has not responded. An Education Department spokesperson replied by sharing a link to a Monday evening post on the X account for DOGE. 

The post said, “the Department of Education terminated 89 contracts worth $881mm” and that “one contractor was paid $1.5mm to ‘observe mailing and clerical operations’ at a mail center.”  

But a third source with extensive knowledge of many of these canceled, Education Department contracts, who would not speak publicly for fear of retribution, told NPR that one shuttered program was already underway in classrooms – to study ways to help students nationwide make up for ground they’ve lost in math. 

According to this source, students in multiple states were already working with high-quality, adaptive digital tools. Now, with the cancellation of that contract, the study will be cut short, and the learning tools could soon be removed from classrooms.

The cancelled contracts also include surveys and data-collection on a range of issues, including private schools, homeschooling and career and technical education programs.    

“This is a decimation,” the source told NPR, “the destruction of knowing what works for kids.”

“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.

According to the employees NPR spoke with, 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 that aired on Sunday: “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.

Trump’s pick to be the Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, is set to appear before Congress on Thursday for her confirmation hearing.