In early 2025, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was largely dismantled. The Trump administration, acting through the Elon Musk–led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), cut NCES’s federal staff from 103 employees to three, removed its commissioner, and canceled roughly three-quarters of its contracts. This disrupted or halted much of its important statistical work. That is a problem that must be remedied. The question is how. A new report from the American Statistical Association (ASA) argues that the answer is not to recreate what was dismantled, but to build a new and better agency.
Written by Shelly Wilkie Martinez and Stephen Provasnik, A Vision and Strategy for Remaking the National Center for Education Statistics is a starting point. And to that end, the ASA is seeking public feedback as it moves into a second phase, expected to commence in 2027, that will refine the vision and develop a fuller roadmap for rebuilding NCES.
The report begins from two propositions that are sometimes—mistakenly—treated as contradictory.
