Updated: This story has been updated with additional information and a response from the U.S. Department of Education.
Read Education Week’s follow-up coverage on the cancellation of Education Department contracts.
The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, appears to be the latest agency in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency office.
Dozens of researchers and contractors received notices Feb. 10, directing them to immediately stop work on research projects and program evaluations financed by IES, a federal agency with a roughly $800 million budget, sources say.
It was not immediately clear which—or how many—of IES’ hundreds of contracts are affected. A statement from the American Education Research Association and the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics put the number at 169.
In response to questions about the move, a department spokeswoman referred to a social media post from DOGE—the nickname for Musk’s department of government efficiency—touting cuts to Education Department contracts, including for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The spokeswoman was unable to immediately to respond to follow-up questions.
The institute, an independent agency within the Education Department, oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, evaluates federal education initiatives, and is a main source of funding for education research.
DOGE officials—who are working under Musk, a tech entrepreneur and top adviser to Trump—have a broad mandate to slash trillions in government spending. They’ve descended on multiple government agencies, including the Education Department, scrutinizing spending and conducting interviews with employees about their job duties. They’ve attempted to take possession of the Treasury Department’s spending machinery and removed the signage in front of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID.
Federal employees’ unions and state attorneys general have taken legal action to stop parts of DOGE’s push to dismantle federal agencies. That may be an avenue open to researchers and organizations whose contracts were nixed.
The missives researchers and contractors received deep-sixing their projects reference the so-called “convenience clause” in federal contracts, which allows the federal government to end a contract without cause—even if the contractor has fully met their obligations, such as completing the research or evaluation the government asked for.
Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the American Institutes for Research, an education research organization that holds many contracts with IES and the Education Department, said that IES has issued notices of termination for convenience on multiple contracts, including those dealing with evaluations of federally funded programs and education statistics.
“This is an incredible waste of taxpayer dollars, which have been invested—per Congressional appropriations and many according to specific legislation—in long-standing data collection and analysis efforts, and policy and program evaluations,” Tofig said. “These investments inform the entire education system at all levels about the condition of education and the distribution of students, teachers, and resources in school districts across America. Many of these contracts are nearing completion and canceling them now yields the taxpayers no return on their investment. If the purpose of such cuts is to make sure taxpayer dollars are not wasted and used well, the evaluation and data work that has been terminated is exactly the work that determines which programs are effective uses of federal dollars, and which are not.”
The statement from AERA and COPFAS identified some of the immediate impact from severing the contracts, particularly for the work of the National Center for Education Statistics, the data-crunching office housed in IES.
“These administration actions will prevent NCES, for example, from participating in international assessments; reporting data on school, college, and university finances; and collecting survey data to understand the extent of teacher shortages and chronic absenteeism in our nation’s schools,” the organizations wrote. “Limiting the important work that NCES does by terminating these contracts will have ramifications for the accuracy of national-level data on the condition and progress of education, from early childhood through postsecondary to adult workforce. Without such research, student learning and development will be harmed.”
‘A significant impact on education innovation’
The move is “disastrous” for education researchers working to improve teaching and learning, said one source connected to the research community who spoke on the condition of anonymity because so little is known about the contract cancellations.
Research embraced by Republican governors—including the science of reading work to improve literacy instruction—was initially financed by IES, this source said. IES’ work is “critical to understanding what works for kids and what doesn’t work for kids,” said another source connected to researchers.
Some of the research projects housed at IES are mandated by Congress, such as the annual “Condition of Education” report from the NCES.
The report includes statistics related to public and private schools, including demographic information about students and data on school finances. It was not clear how such reports were affected by the contract terminations.
The agency also conducts program evaluations that help determine the efficacy of federal programs. It often contracts with researchers to ensure those evaluations are independent. For instance, an evaluation funded by IES released a report in 2017 concluding that the Obama administration’s $7 billion School Improvement Grant program had not helped transform the nation’s lowest-performing schools.
“This will have significant impact on education innovation,” said Carlas McCauley, associate dean for research and associate professor in education leadership and policy studies at Howard University. “These decisions not only affect the field of researchers and educators but the systems and schools that serving kids and are responsible for improving the quality of their education.”
The cancellations apparently do not include one of the oldest education programs in IES: the Regional Education Laboratory program, or REL. The 10 organizations that are part of the program offer research and technical support to states and districts, such as funding research partnerships on school improvement, sources said.
Also spared: contractors working in the institute’s office of small business innovation research, which has financed some early education technology research.
And IES will still be able to finance at least some work related its most high-profile project: the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the nation’s report card. It was not immediately clear, however, if the contract terminations affected some work related to NAEP, such as reports analyzing the data and drawing conclusions for the K-12 field.
