ED Releases Recommendations to Reimagine IES

The Education Department has released recommendations on “reimagining” the Institute of Education Sciences, the central federal education data collection and research funding agency, which the Trump administration gutted last year.

Among other things, the 93-page report, released Friday, says IES “should focus on the most urgent education challenges, informed by state and [school] district leaders,” instead of “spreading resources across many disconnected projects.” It also says that the National Center for Education Statistics, which is part of IES, “should develop a streamlined and coordinated data strategy while preserving and strengthening its vital core functions” rather than “funding multiple data collections and longitudinal surveys that may be redundant or outdated.”

In February 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency and ED announced the slashing of more than $1 billion in multiyear contracts administered by IES. Mass layoffs at the agency followed, along with litigation over the cancellation of studies and contracts. President Trump asked Congress to cut IES’s budget by about 84 percent, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s appropriations tracker.

In May, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced she was temporarily appointing Amber Northern, senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute—a conservative-leaning, education-focused think tank—as a special adviser to “re-envision” IES. In the fall, ED requested public comments about how to “modernize” the agency. Then Congress voted to keep its funding relatively level at $790 million.

On Friday, McMahon announced she had received Northern’s report, which was coauthored by special assistant Adam Opp. In a news release, Northern said, “IES has set the standard for high-quality education research these last 25 years, but now is the time to look at its work with fresh eyes and renewed focus, so that we can drive real progress for student outcomes.”