US math and reading test scores are at a 25-year low. Trump cut the agency that can provide answers

American students' math and reading scores have dropped to their lowest level in 25 years, just as the federal government has gutted the office responsible for measuring and explaining such trends. The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Department of Education, lost roughly 90 percent of its staff last year after the Trump administration fired nearly half the department's workforce and the Department of Government Efficiency canceled close to $900 million in contracts; the center has since rebuilt to 12 employees, according to its website. Former staff say the cuts have stalled surveys tracking school violence and how students finance college, and the American Statistical Association's tracker shows most of the center's data projects now inactive or scaled back. A department spokesperson, Savannah Newhouse, said the Institute of Education Sciences continues producing some statistics, including the Nation's Report Card, and described the overhaul as needed reform, according to The Guardian.

Among the casualties is the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which has tracked cohorts of students from kindergarten onward since 1998 and shaped nearly 3,000 academic papers on topics like reading development and kindergarten scheduling. Its current round, a $47 million contract with Westat, was canceled mid-survey, cutting off plans to follow 15,000 children who entered kindergarten in 2023 — the first cohort born after the pandemic. Former NCES commissioner Peggy Carr called the loss especially painful, saying researchers will never learn how the pandemic shaped this generation's schooling.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →