“If this data is split between multiple federal agencies,” Cheng said, “there will likely be more bureaucratic hurdles needed to combine the data.”
Sharing information between federal agencies is notoriously cumbersome, the same problem that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.
Hiring and $4.5 million in new research grants
Even as the Trump administration publicly insists it intends to close the Department of Education, it is quietly rebuilding small parts of it behind the scenes.
In September, the department posted eight new jobs to replace the fired staff who administered the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the biennial test of American student achievement. It is advertised in November four more jobs for statisticians at the Federal Student Aid Office. Still, nothing is expected to be quick or smooth. The government shutdown halted NAEP hiring, and now a new Trump administration directive must be formed hiring commissions until Nov 17 to approve and fill open positions may further delay these hires.
Meanwhile, demolition continues. Less than two weeks after the Oct. 1 government shutdown, 466 additional Department of Education employees were laid off — on top of the roughly 2,000 lost since March 2025 through layoffs and voluntary departures. (The department employed about 4,000 at the start of the Trump administration.) Federal judge ad interim blocks these last cuts on 15 Oct
There are other small new signs of life. On September 30 – just before the shutdown – the department quietly awarded nine new research and development grants a total of $4.5 million. The grants, listed on the department’s website, are part of a new initiative called “Seedling to Scale Grants Program” (S2S), launched by the Biden administration in August 2024 to test whether the DoD’s DARPA-style innovation model could work in education. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, invests in new technologies for national security. His most famous project became the basis for the Internet.
Each new project, mostly focused on AI-driven personalized learning, received $500,000 to create early evidence of effectiveness. Recipients include universities, research organizations and electronic technology firms. Promising projects may be eligible for future funding to expand with more students.
According to a person familiar with the program who spoke about the background, the nine projects were selected before President Donald Trump took office, but the official awards were delayed amid upheaval at the department. The Institute of Educational Sciences – which lost approximately 90 percent of its staff – was one of the hardest hit divisions.
Of course, $4.5 million is a rounding error compared to the official IES annual budget of $800 million. Still, these are believed to be the first new federal education research grants since the Trump era, and a faint signal that Washington may not be giving up on education innovation entirely.
This story about risks to federal education data is produced by The Hechinger Reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Evidence points and others Hechinger Bulletins.
