Are Schools Succeeding? Trump Education Department Cuts Could Make It Hard to Know.

Significant reductions in staffing and funding within the Department of Education will severely impact the public’s ability to assess student performance in the U.S. and identify strategies for school improvement.

On Tuesday evening, at least 100 federal employees specializing in education research, student assessments, and fundamental data collection were dismissed as part of a broader downsizing effort that eliminated 1,300 positions in the department. Additionally, over the past week, at least 700 professionals in social science research have either lost their jobs or been furloughed, primarily due to cuts in federal funding for education research.

These layoffs come just weeks after the latest national test results revealed that American students’ reading and math skills have plummeted to historic lows. Officials in the Trump administration have cited these poor outcomes as justification for reducing the Department of Education’s size and budget. However, the depth of these cuts now raises concerns about the future of the very assessments used to track student achievement.

Critical data on schools and research aimed at improving education outcomes are at risk of being compromised or disappearing altogether. Many of those who were laid off were responsible for evaluating math and reading instruction, support systems for students with disabilities, and other essential areas of student learning. Moreover, the data they collected played a vital role in directing federal funding to schools in need.

“This is foundational information for understanding how our society functions,” said Philip N. Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland. He emphasized that the Department of Education’s data extends beyond education itself, influencing research on the economy, labor markets, race, class, gender, and social inequality. “It provides a common language—a shared reality we all rely on.”

In response, Madi Biedermann, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, stated, “We are conducting a thorough review of our expenditures to maximize benefits for students while ensuring responsible use of taxpayer dollars.”

Former President Trump and his allies have frequently mocked federally funded research on race and gender. However, many of the discontinued projects were noncontroversial studies focused on fundamental issues of student achievement and well-being.

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Department of Education’s research division, had already suffered extensive budget and contract cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Last night, the majority of its workforce was laid off, according to former employees and an internal email obtained by The New York Times.

Among those affected were teams overseeing key assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)—which evaluates the global competitiveness of U.S. students—and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), widely regarded as the industry’s gold standard and the only national test providing state-by-state comparisons of student performance.

Education researchers and officials overseeing NAEP are now scrambling to determine how these cuts will affect the test, which is mandated by Congress and managed by an independent board.

Federal employees who lost their jobs played a crucial role in administering the assessment and ensuring its accuracy, said Andrew Ho, a Harvard expert in student testing and a former board member overseeing NAEP.

“If Congress and the Department don’t take swift action to reinforce national expertise in assessment, how can we trust that what was once the ‘gold standard’ remains fair and comparable?” he cautioned.

Despite previous indications that the Trump administration prioritized the national assessment, there were discussions about shifting its oversight to another federal agency. Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for restructuring the federal government, had suggested transferring NAEP’s administration to the Census Bureau.

IES staff were also responsible for maintaining the Common Core of Data, a comprehensive database of student and educator demographics used to determine federal funding allocations for K-12 school districts.

Betsy Wolf, a research analyst at the agency who was laid off, expressed grave concerns about the scale of the cuts: “For the most part, federal education research is over.”

As a mother of three young children, she now faces an urgent career shift, given that many education professionals are out of work and federal funding has dried up. Reflecting on a Trump official’s statement that federal workers should be “traumatically affected” by the layoffs, she remarked, “Well, he certainly succeeded.”

Outside the government, layoffs have also affected independent research organizations, including the American Institutes for Research (AIR), Mathematica, and WestEd, which frequently collaborate with federal agencies on large-scale education studies.

Interviews with current and former employees, along with internal recordings reviewed by The New York Times, confirm that these organizations have experienced major staffing reductions.

Some of the discontinued research projects had immediate, real-world implications for students and teachers, akin to clinical trials in the medical field.

One such canceled initiative examined how effectively Oregon schools utilized taxpayer funds to enhance reading instruction, focusing on phonics, vocabulary, and other core literacy skills. The study’s findings were intended to inform future school spending decisions.

Another scrapped program provided mentorship and life-skills training to high school students with disabilities, helping them transition into higher education or the workforce. The research was designed to identify the most effective support strategies for these students.

Nathan Edvalson, Director of Special Education for the Canyons School District near Salt Lake City, lamented the loss of this program, called Charting My Path for Future Success. It had been serving 1,600 students nationwide, including 90 in his district. Thanks to federal funding, the initiative had hired three teachers and one counselor, all of whom spent the fall semester in training before starting work with students in December.

With the grant revoked, those staff members have been reassigned. Parents were notified that their children would no longer receive support from the program but could access alternative counseling services.

Edvalson acknowledged the importance of fiscal responsibility but argued that high-quality education research serves that very purpose by identifying best practices that help students with disabilities achieve independence and employment.

A spokesperson for AIR, which had been administering the program, declined to comment. However, internal recordings obtained by The Times reveal that the nonprofit laid off around 300 employees on Monday.

In one of these meetings, AIR President Jessica Heppen explained that federal budget cuts had slashed $80 million from the organization’s expected $400 million research funding for 2025, with an additional $80 million potentially at risk due to federal stop-work orders.

“We cannot sustain our current workforce under these conditions,” she stated. “We’ve had to make agonizing decisions that affect our staff.”

Last year, AIR secured more than $600 million in federal contracts, including $115 million from the Department of Education.

At Mathematica, a Princeton-based research organization, 340 employees were either laid off or furloughed last week, according to staff reports. The nonprofit had received $360 million in federal funding in 2024, including $28 million from the Education Department.

The Trump administration also terminated Mathematica’s oversight of regional education laboratories across 11 states, which had been conducting research on math instruction, writing skills, and teacher shortages.

Grazia Mieren, a digital project manager who was laid off, said employees had been bracing for cuts in the event of a second Trump term. However, the actual scale of the reductions had been staggering.

“No one saw this coming,” she said. “Everything in our lives has been turned upside down.”

Meanwhile, WestEd, a San Francisco-based education research nonprofit, eliminated 50 positions.

Several of WestEd’s canceled projects had been tackling urgent post-pandemic challenges in education. The organization had overseen the now-defunct study on Oregon’s reading reforms and had been planning similar initiatives in Alaska, Montana, and Washington.

WestEd was also working on solutions to chronic absenteeism in Nevada schools, strategies to prevent teacher attrition in Utah, and tools to support student mental health in Alaska.

“These cancellations are a significant loss for students, families, and communities across the nation,” said WestEd’s CEO, Jannelle Kubinec, in a written statement.

Nat Malkus, an education expert at the American Enterprise Institute, acknowledged inefficiencies in federally funded research. However, he warned that the Trump administration’s indiscriminate cuts had eliminated both essential and unnecessary studies, jeopardizing the Department of Education’s core functions.

“We are losing valuable research,” he said. “And unfortunately, some of it was critically important.”