It’s a bit like asking intensive care patients to defend their own treatment.
Federal education research – the system that tracks student learning and evaluates what works – has been undermined by mass layoffs, contract cuts and cancellations, and a grant freeze. Many researchers at private research organizations have lost their jobs, and those with more protected positions at universities face deep uncertainty. They are now being told that they need to turn up the volume if they want to continue their life’s work.
Their plight was the focus of the Association for Education Finance and Policy’s annual conference earlier this month in Chicago. The conference theme, “Supporting Education Research and Evidence in Turbulent Times,” recognized the devastating aftershocks of last year’s assault. But the cure remains uncertain. At a March 20 session on rebuilding the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Trump administration envoy Amber Northern urged the audience to become stronger champions of their cause.
Related: DOGE Tore Down the Ministry of Education’s Research and Statistics Agency. Now, some in the Trump administration are pushing to rebuild it.
A year ago at this same conference, Northern was just a typical researcher, as horrified as everyone else by DOGE’s cuts to federal education research. She was and still is research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education policy think tank. At last year’s meeting, a sympathetic Trump administration official approached her and asked if she could offer ideas for rebuilding IES, which has generally enjoyed bipartisan support.
This year, Northern was at the conference in her new role as author of a report on the future of the IES, released in late February, and was making the rounds selling her recommendations.
His main message to his fellow researchers: you’re not doing enough.
The reconstruction of the IES will not happen, she warned, without broad public pressure. The administration, she says, responds to parents, but parents don’t protest the loss of education data and research. She added that she was “dismayed” that more people in the field had not written opinion pieces explaining the issues.
The piece grew back. Many researchers still suffered from the loss of federal research funding and the inability to apply for new grants. (The grant process is virtually at a standstill, and the Department of Education finds itself sitting on millions of dollars in unspent funds appropriated by Congress.)
Jason Grissom, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University, said he just received an email informing him that federal funding for his graduate students was ending. He said he didn’t realize the field hadn’t made “a strong enough case.”
But Vivian Wong, a research methodologist at the University of Virginia, disputed the idea that it would be realistic to build a broad coalition. “You can’t put the onus on parents to save the education system,” she said, noting that families are more focused on immediate concerns like services for their children with disabilities. She said producing evidence of effective teaching is the task of good government and should not depend on defending parents’ rights.
Others spoke of a more personal risk: speaking out could turn against them. One researcher worried that public criticism could jeopardize current grants, future funding decisions, or even provoke retaliation against her university, at a time when the administration has shown its willingness to go after her. She directly asked Northern if she could guarantee that advocacy for education research would not have consequences.
“I can’t say for sure,” Northern replied.
And that’s the problem. Researchers are being asked to speak out to save their field, but doing so could put their work and their institutions at risk.
Another possible lever is Congress. Some researchers have begun to lobby their representatives, but even then the path forward remains unclear. One congressional office advised contacting the Office of Management and Budget — not the Department of Education — to release funds already appropriated.
Meanwhile, schools are struggling with absenteeism and declining reading and math scores. And the country’s primary source of evidence and guidance on what helps solve these problems is in limbo.
The researchers received a reprieve. Despite inflation, the Education Finance and Policy Association said it did not increase registration fees for this year’s conference “in response to the challenges facing our community.”
Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal or barshay@hechingerreport.org.
This story on federal education research was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization that covers education. Register for Proof points and others Hechinger Newsletters.
The article Urged to Speak Out, Education Researchers Face a High-Stakes Choice appeared first in the Hechinger Report.
