Education Department cuts agency that compiles 'Nation's Report Card' and measures student performance

The Department of Education's far-reaching layoffs have decimated a small statistical agency considered to be the "authoritative and trusted source" of information on the education system in the United States, four former employees familiar with the situation told ABC News.

Since the 1860s, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has collected and analyzed data on education across the country, which has been used by policymakers and the public to measure academic success, teacher productivity and crime and safety in schools, among other topics.

It issues a congressionally mandated test called the National Assessment of Education Progress -- better known as the "Nation's Report Card" -- which, since 1969, has been considered the gold standard of testing to compare the academic performance and progress of students across all 50 states in math and reading across several grades.

But as of this week, nearly all of the agency's 130 staffers have been fired, according to the former employees, gutting the agency and raising questions about how it can continue its work to measure the performance of the country's 18,000 school districts and efficacy of any policy changes.

"We are baffled, because thought that we would be spared, that we would be moved, because our work is mandated by law," one statistician with more than a decade of experience at the agency told ABC News. "We thought any administration would want to measure how successful their policies are."

"How are we going to know if kids with school choice are doing better?," the employee told ABC News, referencing President Donald Trump's support for school choice programs that allow federal funds to be used at nonpublic school options.

Already, education researchers including the analyst who led the agency as a political appointee during Trump's first term, have warned that funding cuts could make it harder to improve the education system.

The agency's "job is to monitor and report on the condition of education in the United States – from learning in preschools to expenditures in K-12 education, to reporting on graduation rates and the performance of higher education institutions," Thomas Weko, an education policy expert at George Washington University and former NCES employee told ABC News. "It works across the learning life cycle to tell us what is happening. It does it in a neutral and nonpartisan way."

It also coordinates the country's participation in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which measures the performance of American students against others around the world.

The cancellation of agency contracts has also frozen essential data collection for the agency, former employees told ABC News. That, together with mass layoffs, could jeopardize the quality and value of future reports the agency -- in whatever shape it is left in -- is required by Congress to produce.

Trying to collect and analyze the vast troves of data required to produce reports like the "Nation's Report Card" without a full staff "would be the equivalent of manning a 13-person sailboat with a 12-month-old," one employee who was fired this week told ABC News. "It's not possible."

While it's not clear what will happen to the agency, former employees speculated that the Trump administration could follow the recommendations of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 proposal and merge NCES with the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

"If things get handed over, it won't be a great host," Weko said. "Do they have good statisticians and survey methodologists? Yes. Do they have a deep understanding of the policy and practice of education in the United States? No."

The Department of Education, which did not respond to a message seeking comments about cuts to NCES, has pointed to the agency's findings in recent weeks.

On Jan. 29, shortly after the 2024 "Nation's Report Card" was released, the department highlighted the results for revealing "heartbreaking" learning gaps that still exist from the pandemic — and committed to using the research to "[reorient] our education system."

"Today's NAEP results reveal a heartbreaking reality for American students and confirm our worst fears: not only did most students not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, but those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind," the department said in a statement.

"We must do better for our students. The Trump Administration is committed to reorienting our education system to fully empower states, to prioritize meaningful learning, and provide universal access to high-quality instruction. Change must happen, and it must happen now," the department said.