APA Services joined 72 organizations representing the Friends of IES, a coalition committed to supporting the “essential role” of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in a joint letteropens in new window urging Congress to provide at least $900 million in funding for this vital agency. This level of funding will allow IES to continue to work collaboratively across its programs to meet its mission, which includes congressionally mandated activities, “providing information on the condition and progress of education, developing evidence-based educational practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to educational opportunities for all students, and evaluation of the effectiveness of federal and other education programs.” The coalition also urges Congress to ensure that IES’s fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding provided in the FY 2025 continuing resolution “remains available for IES to use consistent with the FY 2024 explanatory statement.”
The groups highlight IES’ support of grants in emerging topic areas and longstanding challenges in education policy and practice, and synthesis and dissemination of evidence-based resources. IES investment in research, development, and dissemination (RD&D) “is critical to support research that drives the development of evidence-based education programs.” Unfortunately, this work has been paused.
The coalition acknowledges the circumstances in which the FY 2026 budget process is unfolding, including the Department of Education's initiated reduction in force, significantly reducing IES staff. Additionally, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) canceled contracts that “support the essential functions that Congress has mandated IES undertake, and that were directly supporting students, educators, and district and state leaders to improve academic achievement.” The organizations strongly encouraged Congress to ensure that FY 2025 funding “is used for reinstating cancelled contracts, restarting ongoing research and training grant competitions that were underway, and continuing other mandated functions that drive improvements in educational outcomes and support student and educator success.”
Cancellation of IES contracts
In February, APA Services joined the education research community in a letter to Congress regarding representatives from DOGE unilaterally canceling an unprecedented number of contracts that support evaluation, research, and data collection for the U.S. Department of Education. The groups called on Congress to “address these actions by instructing the Acting Secretary of Education to reverse it.” They further requested Congress ask the Acting Secretary to provide a detailed response on what process will be implemented to ensure that cancelations are not a part of the Department’s operations moving forward.
The letter underscores that DOGE’s cancellation of these contracts “works against efficiency and effectiveness, cutting off support for educators and parents that want to know what works to improve outcomes. Projects canceled were helping students, parents, teachers, and principals.” Among the contracts canceled midstream:
- Helping students with disabilities served under IDEA graduate from high school and achieve financial independence.
- Supporting efforts to help educators support college and career readiness in grades 6-12.
- Improving literacy outcomes in kindergarten-grade 3.
- Determining what information is most beneficial to parents in making an informed decision regarding school choice.
- Examining the effectiveness of various teacher recruitment and retention programs.
- Understanding whether the law meets the needs of students with disabilities.
- Providing training to educators to help them improve their teaching skills in math, literacy, and other critical areas.
APA Services will continue to work alongside other education research organizations to encourage Congress to address the decimation of the Department of Education’s evaluation, research, and data collection.
For more information, contact Angela L. Sharpe.