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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Education researchers struggle to pick up the pieces after Trump cuts
The educational research community is looking to pick up the pieces after the Trump administration has canceled dozens of studies and ended hundreds of jobs. In line with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hundreds of federal contracts have been canceled with education research groups, accused by the administration of either being useless or simply too 'woke.' Longitudinal studies on early childhood education and artificial intelligence literacy are among those that have taken significant hits. The industry has not given up on the prospect of future collaboration with the Trump White House but fears the long-term effects the cuts could have as teachers are already struggling with learning loss and sinking test scores. 'We've had a number of projects canceled, including some very long-standing research projects, namely the Regional Education Labs that WestEd has been part of for almost its entire history, so 59 years,' said Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, adding studies relating to reading, chronic absenteeism and math and numeracy have also been terminated. 'In some cases, those are just suspended, and we're asking ourselves, what's next? I think the end of these came quite abruptly. So, we didn't have a transition plan in place,' Kubinec added. The Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, its research arm, faced $900 million in cuts under DOGE's directive, decimating employment both in the agency and among other research groups whose workers relied on federal contracts. The Department of Education said the contracts failed to focus on student achievement and were rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) directives. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which has been conducted in 1998, 2011 and began in 2023 to follow kindergarteners through third grade, was abruptly put on hold amid the contract cancelations. 'I think they were actually with the field staff to go out and begin collecting information on first graders' when the contract was canceled, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of Knowledge Alliance. 'We are probably past the point of being able to collect information on the first grade cohort, which is really the first national look at a generation of young children post-pandemic.' If things can get turned around, Dinkes said, they are 'not too late to collect information on them in third grade.' An analysis from Grant Watch of which words were found the most in the terminated grants discovered projects with 'Black' in the description or title were most frequently eliminated, The Hechinger Report reported. Other words commonly used in the canceled contracts were 'climate,' 'student,' 'network,' 'justice,' 'identity,' 'teacher' and 'undergraduate.' 'Across the board, we're really talking about a complete capacity downsize. It's people, it's money, it's spaces, it's resources. So, it's definitely a lot all at once […] Outside of contract cancelations and risk, a lot of the harm is yet to come,' said Jinann Bitar, higher education research and data analytics at EdTrust. Along with interruptions in longer studies, the turbulence in the field has led to hesitation in researchers wanting to start a career in this area, as there are few safe spaces for the studies left. 'This is going to be gut-stopping for current researchers, but it's actually going to be almost impossible to overcome for early-career researchers if they don't have anywhere stable to be in the meantime on their research,' said Bitar. Kubinec said there are 'some opportunities through philanthropy' for funding that his and other organizations are pursuing, but that it's 'not like funding education research is top of mind for most foundations.' And, as in several other areas of the federal government, the DOGE cuts are being challenged in court, though definitive relief, if it ever comes, is a long way off. The most recent point of excitement among the community came with the Education Department's hiring of Amber Northern, senior adviser to the education secretary with a focus on reforming the Institute of Education Sciences. 'I think we'll have a lot more knowledge of the direction of the department after she assumes this role,' said Dinkes, noting many groups are looking forward to meeting her. 'She is a very thoughtful researcher, and I'm excited for her to start there and see where this story continues to go,' she added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
6 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Education researchers struggle to pick up the pieces after Trump cuts
The educational research community is looking to pick up the pieces after the Trump administration has canceled dozens of studies and ended hundreds of jobs. In line with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hundreds of federal contracts have been canceled with education research groups, accused by the administration of either being useless or simply too 'woke.' Longitudinal studies on early childhood education and artificial intelligence literacy are among those that have taken significant hits. The industry has not given up on the prospect of future collaboration with the Trump White House but fears the long-term effects the cuts could have as teachers are already struggling with learning loss and sinking test scores. 'We've had a number of projects canceled, including some very long-standing research projects, namely the Regional Education Labs that WestEd has been part of for almost its entire history, so 59 years,' said Jannelle Kubinec, CEO of WestEd, adding studies relating to reading, chronic absenteeism and math and numeracy have also been terminated. 'In some cases, those are just suspended, and we're asking ourselves, what's next? I think the end of these came quite abruptly. So, we didn't have a transition plan in place,' Kubinec added. The Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, its research arm, faced $900 million in cuts under DOGE's directive, decimating employment both in the agency and among other research groups whose workers relied on federal contracts. The Department of Education said the contracts failed to focus on student achievement and were rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) directives. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which has been conducted in 1998, 2011 and began in 2023 to follow kindergarteners through third grade, was abruptly put on hold amid the contract cancelations. 'I think they were actually with the field staff to go out and begin collecting information on first graders' when the contract was canceled, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of Knowledge Alliance. 'We are probably past the point of being able to collect information on the first grade cohort, which is really the first national look at a generation of young children post-pandemic.' If things can get turned around, Dinkes said, they are 'not too late to collect information on them in third grade.' An analysis from Grant Watch of which words were found the most in the terminated grants discovered projects with 'Black' in the description or title were most frequently eliminated, The Hechinger Report reported. Other words commonly used in the canceled contracts were 'climate,' 'student,' 'network,' 'justice,' 'identity,' 'teacher' and 'undergraduate.' 'Across the board, we're really talking about a complete capacity downsize. It's people, it's money, it's spaces, it's resources. So, it's definitely a lot all at once […] Outside of contract cancelations and risk, a lot of the harm is yet to come,' said Jinann Bitar, higher education research and data analytics at EdTrust. Along with interruptions in longer studies, the turbulence in the field has led to hesitation in researchers wanting to start a career in this area, as there are few safe spaces for the studies left. 'This is going to be gut-stopping for current researchers, but it's actually going to be almost impossible to overcome for early-career researchers if they don't have anywhere stable to be in the meantime on their research,' said Bitar. Kubinec said there are 'some opportunities through philanthropy' for funding that his and other organizations are pursuing, but that it's 'not like funding education research is top of mind for most foundations.' And, as in several other areas of the federal government, the DOGE cuts are being challenged in court, though definitive relief, if it ever comes, is a long way off. The most recent point of excitement among the community came with the Education Department's hiring of Amber Northern, senior adviser to the education secretary with a focus on reforming the Institute of Education Sciences. 'I think we'll have a lot more knowledge of the direction of the department after she assumes this role,' said Dinkes, noting many groups are looking forward to meeting her. 'She is a very thoughtful researcher, and I'm excited for her to start there and see where this story continues to go,' she added.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NC lawmakers urged to fully fund Leandro plan after decades of inaction
Photo byFor the sixth year in a row, Rep. Julie von Haefen has filed a bill to fully fund the state's Leandro education plan, a landmark court-ordered initiative to provide every child in North Carolina with a sound basic education. And for the sixth year, the Democratic lawmaker says her bill has been ignored by the state's Republican legislative leadership. 'It is long, long past time for our legislature to do the right thing for North Carolina children,' von Haefen said. 'It's long past time for them to do the right thing for educators, our staff and our beloved public schools,' von Haefen told a crowd of education advocates gathered at a Wednesday Legislative Building press conference. The Leandro case dates back to 1994, when a group of five low-wealth, rural counties sued the state over insufficient school funding. The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that the state was violating students' constitutional right to a sound basic education, a decision that has been upheld four times since then. Yet more than three decades later, von Haefen said, 1.5 million students in the state continue to have their basic rights violated. She cited a report by the nonpartisan research group WestEd, which documented the 'continued and worsening violations' of the state constitution in North Carolina's school systems. 'Every day, I talk to families who aren't getting the services that their children need to thrive, and I talked to educators in both visiting schools and serving as a substitute teacher who don't have the resources and professional freedoms that they need to succeed,' von Haefen said. The court-ordered Leandro comprehensive remedial plan, developed by WestEd, outlines a detailed strategy to bring the state into compliance with the court's ruling. It calls for investments to provide, among other things, qualified and fairly compensated teachers, strong school leadership, adequate and equitable funding, and early childhood education. Frenchy Davis, CEO of the Foundation Builders Academy Childcare Development Center in Rocky Mount, said fully funding the Leandro plan would provide critical resources like smaller class sizes, better teacher training and modernized school facilities. 'Investing in the Leandro plan means investing in our children, our educators and our future,' Davis said. But for parents like Susan Book of Wake County, the state's failure to act has had real consequences for her son, who has autism and relies on a team of specialized educators and therapists to access his education. 'The state carries a primary responsibility to fund our schools, but has failed multiple times with each budget cycle,' said Book. 'Don't tell me not to worry about my son's future. Don't tell me everything will magically be okay. Our state sits in violation of its constitutional duty, and this General Assembly knows it. I have good reason to worry.' Jackie Perez-Albanil, a statewide organizer with Education Justice Alliance, said the state's inaction is part of a 'calculated attack on our public education' by lawmakers more interested in pursuing a partisan agenda than fulfilling their constitutional duty. 'Lawmakers have deliberately kicked the can down the road when it comes to funding our public schools,' said Perez-Albanil. 'They literally have a plan laid out for them on how to properly fund public schools, and have chosen to withhold funds so they can use the narrative that public schools are underperforming as an excuse to shut down public schools altogether.' In 2022, the state Supreme Court ordered the General Assembly to fund the Leandro plan, but it has thus far failed to do so. in 2024, the high court — by then featuring a much different composition than it had in 2022 (a 5-2 Republican majority rather than a 4-3 margin for Democrats) — heard pleas from GOP legislators to reverse the 2022 order. It has yet to issue a ruling.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration cut ‘woke spending.' Why a Tacoma schools math study got shelved
A federally funded research project intended to improve the math experiences of Tacoma high school students was stopped after the U.S. Department of Education recently cut spending it deemed 'wasteful and ideologically driven,' The News Tribune has learned. On Feb. 13, the Education Department announced it had canceled more than $350 million in contracts and grants, which it characterized as 'woke spending,' to Regional Educational Laboratories and Equity Assistance Centers. In a news release, the Education Department said it ended 10 contracts totaling $336 million to Congressionally mandated Regional Educational Laboratories that are meant to support applied research, development and technical assistance activities. '(H)owever, review of the contracts uncovered wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers,' the department said, citing efforts in Ohio schools to audit and have conversations about equity as one example. Regional Educational Laboratories (REL), which are funded by the Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences, have partnered with school districts and other educators for nearly 60 years to conduct research that informs decisions about policy, programs and practice, according to WestEd, a nonpartisan agency. WestEd operates Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest, which until recently was collaborating with Tacoma Public Schools on a project approved last year to analyze math course-taking patterns among high school students in the district. The project came against the backdrop of a district policy that sees students enrolled in Algebra I in eighth grade, according to a draft study proposal by TPS and REL Northwest obtained by The News Tribune. Approximately 90% of students pass Algebra I, but many retake the class as high school freshman and some later enroll in the course for a third time, potentially limiting their options for taking more advanced high-school math classes, the document said. The research was intended to learn how student experiences in math courses might influence which math classes they choose throughout high school, while also assisting educators to better support and empower students to enroll in more advanced courses, the document shows. The study's future remains unclear, according to Katie Drummond, a senior research director at REL Northwest. WestEd collected and analyzed the data and drafted a report, which was slated for third-party peer review until the federal contract was canceled, Drummond told The News Tribune. Asked if the project's results would ever see the light of day, Drummond did not know. 'At this time, WestEd does not have the answer to this question, given that the work was not completed at the time the contract was canceled,' she said in a statement. 'All options will be explored.' The U.S. Department of Education said last week that it planned to enter into new contracts that it claimed would improve student learning and better serve school districts and stakeholders. Many Tacoma school district students are unprepared for college-level math and require remedial coursework, despite TPS offering advanced math classes, according to the district's draft application for the project obtained by The News Tribune. There are also inequities by race and ethnicity on measures of math achievement, the document noted. It's unclear whether the U.S. Department of Education examined all projects under the umbrella of RELs, including the Tacoma Public Schools' study, before determining to cancel contracts in the Trump administration's effort to eliminate so-called 'woke spending.' An inquiry made to the U.S. Department of Education was not returned Wednesday. WestEd said, by agency rule, it doesn't share the budgets for individual projects or studies conducted by RELs. It had similar projects underway in the five-state region served by REL Northwest including Washington. A partnership with rural districts in the state on how to best leverage technology to improve student outcomes can no longer be fulfilled, with district leaders and the 79-member district Washington Rural Alliance losing access to training and evidence-based strategies, according to Drummond. REL Northwest also partnered with the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction on literacy issues, ensuring that the latest findings were included in statewide literacy framework and professional learning opportunities for state educators. The group was helping OSPI as the state analyzed data about educator needs and incorporated research findings on reading instruction into policy and practice, Drummond said. The contract cancellation disrupted the dissemination of literacy strategies planned for this spring and summer, she added. The support from RELs is tailored to local and state requests, priorities and needs, according to WestEd. Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the Washington State Attorney General's Office, said the agency is learning more about the Education Department's 'politically motivated action.' 'Equity and inclusion create opportunities and improve outcomes for young people,' Faulk said in a statement. 'The Trump administration is taking money from legitimate programming.' For the Tacoma school district study, seniors were expected to be surveyed and partake in focus groups along with teachers and guidance counselors, and researchers were expected to review data such as class records, test scores and student demographics, according to a publicly available memo and data-sharing agreement between TPS and WestEd signed in 2024. 'The focus group work occurred last year, we are determining how cancellation of the contract will impact our work going forward,' TPS spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy said in an email. One district employee told The News Tribune that the study was anticipated to shed light on why more students weren't enrolling in advanced math classes and also contribute to a larger discussion about the implications, including future high-paying job opportunities. The employee spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were unsure if they were authorized to publicly address the matter. The employee said they believed the decision to target all REL contracts was 'a lousy way to govern' and not mindful of the local consequences. 'It's caught in the wash, I guess for lack of a better word,' they said about TPS' project stoppage. In a statement Wednesday, WestEd CEO Jannelle Kubinec said the contract cancellations halted many REL education projects aimed at directly benefiting students. 'These cancellations are a great loss for our nation's students, families, and communities,' Kubinec said. 'It is our hope that the important work of the RELs will eventually be allowed to continue and that our states, school districts, schools, teachers, and students will again be able to benefit from the rigorous research; thoughtful, research-based counsel and projects; and expert technical support that have served them so well.'
