Don’t Destroy Institute of Education Sciences, Rebuild It With Students in Mind

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The scaffolding that supports the nation’s federal education data systems is crumbling. By canceling programs and eliminating staff, including those that fulfilled statutorily mandated functions, the Trump administration has taken a hatchet to the Institute of Education Sciences, the federal agency responsible for collecting, analyzing and making public key higher education data, with no real plan for replacement. This is not strategic reform; it’s irresponsible leadership.

This system must be rebuilt, and it must be done thoughtfully, with student success as the guiding goal.

Data are among the most important tools available for understanding what’s working and what isn’t in education. For higher education especially, data are critical for identifying problems, spotlighting solutions and distinguishing colleges and universities that deliver strong student outcomes from those in need of improvement. IES has long provided trusted, rigorous data that inform decisionmaking and drive policy change. But the agency and the insights it supports are now in jeopardy.

The administration’s cuts have real consequences for students, families, states, policymakers and the country.

Every year, over 1 million people use tools powered by federal data to make decisions about college and about higher education policy. The College Scorecard, for example, helps prospective applicants compare schools by cost, student loan debt, graduation rates and post-graduation earnings. However, colleges have reported system outages when trying to upload information to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which the scorecard relies upon. In addition, staffers responsible for verifying, approving and publishing the data have been terminated — along with 90% of all IES personnel. Equally troubling, the Department of Education canceled the contract that provided training to the professionals who report data to the system, risking the quality and integrity of the information. 

In February, IES did away with other vital data collections, including the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study and its longitudinal follow-up study about the outcomes of first-time college students, the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study. These data sources are essential to answering basic questions like: Who enrolls in college? Who transfers? Who completes their degree? How do students pay for college? How do graduates fare in the workforce? While the contract for the 2024 postsecondary student aid data collection was reinstated June 30, questions remain about the scope of that study and its future, as well its related longitudinal studies. These concerns are especially pertinent as IES remains severely understaffed and the Trump administration has proposed a 67% budget cut for fiscal year 2026.

IES’ outlook remains wholly unclear. The administration has not outlined a plan nor has it sought, nor has it sought any public input to determine its future. Some officials have advocated scattering the Education Department’s responsibilities across other agencies, but they have not explained how they would preserve researcher access and data quality under such a fragmented system. This creates uncertainty for students, families, state officials and researchers — and threatens to destroy a system that took decades to build, undermining the future of evidence-based policymaking.

A newly announced department senior adviser, Dr. Amber Northern, is reportedly focusing on IES reform. But without swift and transparent action, the damage risks becoming permanent. The nation doesn’t need a patchwork fix. It needs a clear, thoughtful and ambitious plan to rebuild its education data infrastructure. That starts with a few key principles: 

First, protect the principles that made IES so crucial in the first place: statistical rigor, public transparency, data security, privacy protections, data accessibility and responsiveness to stakeholder input. 

Second, recognize that no state or private entity can replace what the federal government is uniquely equipped to do: mandate consistent reporting across colleges, access administrative data across agencies and ensure national comparability.

Third, recognize that federal data are a public good, and that changes to them should be informed by stakeholders — states, colleges, education researchers, policy analysts, policymakers and, of course, students and families. Any reform must be conceived with their needs in mind.

Fourth, think bigger. Set an ambitious vision for the depth, breadth and scope of education data and research that the nation truly needs.

America’s future relies on the strength of its education system — and education decisions made by students, families, educators, states and policymakers ought to be informed by the best available data and research. If students are to succeed, the nation must commit to providing and learning from the data. As the Education Department and Congress consider their next steps, they face a pivotal choice: continue to erode critical data systems, replace what existed before or seize the moment to design something stronger — a system worthy of the students it’s meant to serve.

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