When I was covering education research in the Before Times, I rarely worried about following the latest news. But the Trump administration has upended my beat. Last week was one of the busiest I’ve had in my 14 years at The Hechinger Report. Some highlights: a bewildering email, contradictory court rulings and a missed deadline. For details, read on.
Education Department employees in limbo
On June 6, some 1,300 former Education Department employees received email notices that their March mass firing would be reversed. “You will not be separated on June 10, 2025,” the email said. “We are actively assessing how to reintegrate you back to the office in the most seamless way possible.” (Because of federal employment rules, these staffers had been paid to sit at home since March, but their terminations were to be final on June 10.)
However, it’s unclear if these federal employees will ever return to work. That same day, the Education Department made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to stop a lower court order to bring back all the employees. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump administration, the employees could soon be back to their fired status. The upshot: the administration is simultaneously complying with the lower court order to rehire the employees and fighting it.
Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.
The strange turn of events stems from a legal case against the Trump Administration in which two Massachusetts school districts, a teachers union and 21 Democratic attorneys general are suing to reinstate 1,300 Education Department employees terminated in March. They argue that the firings were tantamount to dismantling the Education Department, which requires Congressional approval. On May 22, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun ordered the Trump administration to temporarily bring back the employees while the constitutional question is adjudicated.
The email notification threw former Education Department employees into confusion. Some had secured new jobs and were unclear on whether they had to return to the Education Department or risk losing their severance payments. Others wondered what they would do because the activities they used to work on have been canceled.
Some research and data activities reinstated
On June 5, the Education Department disclosed in a court filing that it had or is planning to reinstate 20 of 101 terminated contracts to comply with Congressional statutes that require these studies and data collections. But education researchers, who are suing the Trump administration to restart the full gamut of research and data activities, were not satisfied.
Elizabeth Tipton, president of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE), said the limited reinstatement is “upsetting.” “They’re trying to make IES as small as they possibly can,” she said, referring to the Institute of Education Sciences, the research-and-data arm of the Department.
In some cases, only a small part of a research activity is now slated to restart, making it impossible to produce anything meaningful for the public. For example, the department said it is reinstating a support contract for the What Works Clearinghouse, a website that informs schools on evidence-based teaching practices. But the department said it was not reinstating any of the contracts to review studies for quality and how much student achievement improved. “Why train reviewers and have a statistical methods support panel if there aren’t going to be any contracts to conduct the reviews?” Tipton asked.
The Education Department press office said it had no comment beyond what it disclosed in the legal brief. The suit, filed in federal court in Maryland, accuses the Trump administration of exceeding its executive power by firing employees and terminating Congressionally mandated research activity. It was brought by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE).
Related: Education researchers sue Trump administration, testing executive power
Related: DOGE’s death blow to education studies
Education researchers lose in court
Meanwhile, similar cases by other education researchers suffered a setback last week.
On June 3, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., denied a request by four education research trade associations for a preliminary injunction, which means that the Education Department doesn’t have to temporarily reinstate fired employees and canceled contracts within its research and data arm, the Institute of Education Sciences.
Read the story: Education researchers lose to Trump administration in first round of court challenge
Late and sparse stats report
The week began with a missed deadline. On June 2, I was reporting a story about how the Education Department hadn’t delivered a statistical report to Congress titled “The Condition of Education,” despite the June 1 deadline mandated by law.
I thought it was a small but illuminating example of how the department is unable to keep up with its statutory obligations because it no longer has the personnel and contracts in place to do the work.
This nonpartisan statistics report includes the number of students, college graduates and teachers, among other statistics. It bundles together and explains all the data and surveys that the National Center for Education Statistics collects during the year. With charts!
This year was the first time the department missed the June 1 deadline, which was established in 2002. The history of this report dates back almost 160 years, when the federal government began tracking education data.
I gave the Education Department until 3 p.m. to explain the delay and published my story at 5:40 p.m. on June 2. A few minutes later, the department press office emailed me a link to a website titled, “Learn About the New Condition of Education 2025: Part I.” It explains that the report will no longer be a “singular report” but instead it will update indicators on a rolling basis.
The site also published sparse “highlights” on five topics, such as public school enrollment. Initially, half of the nine tables were “Updating Soon!” and “Coming Soon!” as if they were blockbuster summer movies. Whoever put together the June 2 highlights report had access to the Education Department’s website, but might not have known where to find the data. At least one of the missing tables on student enrollment was readily available elsewhere on the NCES website.
By June 5, the Education Department seemed to have found the missing tables. Only one “Coming Soon!” remained.
Lawmakers will need to decide whether this new rolling report, which essentially says, “Stay tuned, we’re working on it,” fulfills the obligation of producing an annual report on the condition of education in the nation by June 1.
In a Senate committee hearing June 5 on the confirmation of senior officials at the Education Department, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) cited passages from my story and asked if deputy education secretary nominee Penny Schwinn would commit to producing a full report. Schwinn said she would follow Congressional laws.
Read the story: Education Department misses key deadline for delivering statistics report
NAEP cuts quantified
In a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing June 4, Education Secretary Linda McMahon disclosed that she had saved taxpayers $540 million by renegotiating the contracts for administering the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. It was unclear how much of savings was due to the fact that fewer assessments are planned for the coming years, or if the preserved tests will have to be conducted more cheaply. I am looking into the details of the cuts to the national testing program, which previously had a $185 million annual budget.
Related: A smaller Nation’s Report Card
Related: NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card, was supposed to be safe. It’s not
Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or barshay@hechingerreport.org.
This newsletter updating readers about Trump administration education news was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.