“If these information are cut up throughout a number of federal companies,” Cheng stated, “there would possible be extra bureaucratic hurdles required to mix the info.”
Data sharing throughout federal companies is notoriously cumbersome, the very downside that led to the creation of the Division of Homeland Safety after 9/11.
Hiring and $4.5 million in recent analysis grants
Even because the Trump administration publicly insists it intends to shutter the Division of Schooling, it’s quietly rebuilding small elements of it behind the scenes.
In September, the division posted eight new jobs to switch fired employees who oversaw the Nationwide Evaluation of Instructional Progress (NAEP), the biennial check of American college students’ achievement. In November, it marketed four more openings for statisticians contained in the Federal Scholar Support Workplace. Nonetheless, nothing is anticipated to be fast or easy. The federal government shutdown stalled hiring for the NAEP jobs, and now a brand new Trump administration directive to type hiring committees by Nov. 17 to approve and fill open positions could additional delay these hires.
On the identical time, the demolition continues. Lower than two weeks after the Oct. 1 authorities shutdown, 466 extra Schooling Division workers had been terminated — on high of the roughly 2,000 misplaced since March 2025 by way of firings and voluntary departures. (The division employed about 4,000 in the beginning of the Trump administration.) A federal decide quickly blocked these latest layoffs on Oct. 15.
There are additionally different small new indicators of life. On Sept. 30 — simply earlier than the shutdown — the division quietly awarded nine new research and development grants totaling $4.5 million. The grants, listed on the division’s web site, are a part of a brand new initiative known as, “From Seedlings to Scale Grants Program” (S2S), launched by the Biden administration in August 2024 to check whether or not the Protection Division’s DARPA-style innovation mannequin may work in schooling. DARPA, the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company, invests in new applied sciences for nationwide safety. Its most celebrated undertaking turned the idea for the web.
Every new undertaking, largely targeted on AI-driven customized studying, acquired $500,000 to provide early proof of effectiveness. Recipients embody universities, analysis organizations and ed tech corporations. Initiatives that present promise might be eligible for future funding to scale up with extra college students.
In response to an individual acquainted with this system who spoke on background, the 9 initiatives had been chosen earlier than President Donald Trump took workplace, however the formal awards had been delayed amid the division’s upheaval. The Institute of Schooling Sciences — which misplaced roughly 90 p.c of its employees — was one of many hardest hit divisions.
Granted, $4.5 million is a rounding error in contrast with IES’s official annual finances of $800 million. Nonetheless, these are believed to be the primary new federal schooling analysis grants of the Trump period and a faint sign that Washington will not be abandoning schooling innovation altogether.
This story about risks to federal education data was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, impartial information group targeted on inequality and innovation in schooling. Join Proof Points and different Hechinger newsletters.
