Unexpected Termination
Peggy Carr, the first woman and the first Black person to hold the position of commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), was abruptly dismissed in early 2024 without a clear explanation. [1][3][5]
During her tenure, Carr played a crucial role in shaping the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) into the influential Nation's Report Card. She also defended standardized tests against charges of racism. [1]
The dismissal of Carr coincided with a broader effort to dismantle or significantly weaken NCES under the Trump administration, which publicly criticized the agency's reports on American education. [1][5]
Carr's termination was part of a larger collapse of the agency's staff and resources, which she described as a "professional tragedy" and a loss for NCES's mission of unbiased statistical assessment on education in the U.S. [1][3][5]
Upon her dismissal, Carr was escorted out of her office with no advance warning other than an email notification. Shortly afterwards, many NCES employees were laid off as part of what she described as a devastating shutdown and decimation of the agency. [1]
The Education Department, in partnership with DOGE employees, found contracts with overhead and administrative expenses that exceeded 50 percent, which they considered a clear example of contractors taking advantage of the American taxpayer. [2]
As a result, 89 of NCES's contracts were terminated, which represented the vast majority of the statistical work that the agency conducts. This included the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS-K 2024), which was supposed to collect its second year of data as kindergarteners progressed to first grade. [2]
Carr was trying to follow the 2022 recommendations of a National Academies panel to modernize and fix the agency, but it wasn't easy. She was particularly worried about preserving the interagency agreement with the Census Bureau, which was needed to calculate federal Title I allocations to high-poverty schools. [3]
The immediate problem is that there aren't enough personnel to do the work that Congress mandates. NCES has missed an annual deadline for delivering a statistical report to Congress and failed to release the 2024 NAEP science test scores in June because there was no commissioner to sign off on them. [3]
The firing of the head of a nonpartisan statistical agency has resulted in the loss of an objective assessment of how American students are doing. NCES had to rely on outside contractors to do 90% of the data work due to restrictions on its staffing levels. [4]
Carr plans to stay involved in education statistics - but from the outside. She's been talking with states and school districts about calculating where they rank on an international yardstick. [6]
She is also concerned about the maintenance of historical datasets. When DOGE canceled the contracts, Carr counted that NCES had 550 datasets scattered in different locations. [6]
The DOGE sledgehammer came just as schools were administering an important international test - the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The department is restarting PISA, but it's unclear who will tabulate the scores and analyze them. [7]
Behind the scenes, Carr's priority was to save NAEP. DOGE was demanding 50 percent cuts to NAEP's $185 million budget, but Carr could not see a way to cut that deep. [7]
This sudden turn of events raises concerns about the future of education statistics and the unbiased assessment of American students' performance.
References: 1. The Atlantic 2. Education Week 3. The Washington Post 4. The New York Times 5. NPR 6. The Hechinger Report 7. The 74 Million
- The dismissal of Peggy Carr, a key figure in education policy and legislation, has raised concerns about innovation in education statistics, as the loss of her unbiased assessment leaves a gap in understanding American students' performance.
- The dismantling of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) under the Trump administration, which led to the termination of Carr and a significant reduction of staff and resources, could widen the inequality in American education by limiting the availability of crucial data.
- As Peggy Carr plans to engage in education-related activities outside of NCES, there is a pressing need for policy-and-legislation that ensures the maintenance of historical datasets and the continued production of objective general-news about American education.
