Trump’s First Steps to Take Apart the Ed Department — and Other Takeaways for Ed Companies

Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that demanded recommendations for eliminating federal funding sources that engage in what he labeled as “indoctrination.”

This week, dozens of contracts with the U.S. Department of Education’s longstanding research branch, the Institute of Education Sciences, were suddenly terminated.

The contract cancellations are among the first steps Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency office, headed by billionaire business executive Elon Musk, has taken to attempt to limit the scope of the federal education office.

Trump has made it clear since the campaign trail that he wants to ultimately eliminate the department and is drafting orders with that aim — although he may face a major hurdle in earning congressional support.

Here are a few key takeaways for the education sector to understand about his policy directives, and opposition to them, this week:

• It’s unclear exactly how many contracts and grants were terminated. Some reports suggest more than 160 awards have been targeted. The DOGE confirmed 89 were cancelled in a Feb. 10 post on X, but did not make clear whether that was the full scope of its actions.
• At least some of the terminated contracts were related to diversity, equity and inclusion work — an area Trump is targeting. According to DOGE, the office terminated 29 grants for teacher training that included helping students understand “the complex histories involved in oppression.”
• These cancellations do not include one of IES’ oldest programs, the Regional Education Laboratory program, or the National Assessment of Educational Progress, an assessment known as the “nation’s report card,” Education Week’s Alyson Klein reported. Although it’s unclear if it could impact work related to NAEP, such as analyzing the data it produces for the nation, individual states, and urban school systems.
• Advocates for education research have condemned the attempts to cancel research contracts. States “absolutely cannot do this work on their own,” said a joint statement from the Alliance for Learning Innovation, Data Quality Campaign, Digital Promise, InnovateEDU, Knowledge Alliance, and Results for America. “States must be able to learn from one another, and leaders need data and evidence to guide the way.”

Education companies providing products and services to school districts are likely to be impacted both directly and indirectly by Trump’s proposed cuts.

Companies that have contracts to carry out research, data analysis, and other work would appear to be at risk of seeing their projects halted.

Many education companies also rely on research and data provided by IES to design, sell, and implement their products. And educators look to the research IES supports to understand what sets high-quality materials apart.

EdWeek Market Brief surveys of school district officials have found that whether or not a product or service is research-backed weighs heavily on their decisions about buying it.

Nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of district and school leaders said in a nationally representative spring 2023 survey that academic or scientifically based research has a lot of influence over their decisions about what products or services to purchase.

And another 20 percent said that rigorous research has some influence over their decisions.

Just two percent of K-12 officials say they don’t consider research at all.

If trusted sources of federal research become less available, it may have a significant impact on the purchasing decisions that school districts make.

While a full list of IES programs targeted for cuts hasn’t been released, EdWeek reports that one of them is the What Works Clearinghouse, which publishes research findings about products for K-12 schools. Many companies have had their products reviewed through the clearinghouse.

Less research may ultimately have the opposite impact on K-12 than Trump’s administration intends by actually undermining local autonomy, the Data Quality Campaign argued in its statement.

“By supporting researchers who study what works for students and under which circumstances, the federal government provides local and state educators the data they need to make better decisions about what programs would most benefit their students,” it said.

“This approach respects local autonomy and ensures evidence-based practices drive decision-making with minimal federal oversight.”