The Trump administration placed Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), on administrative leave Monday without explanation. Carr, who has overseen The Nation’s Report Card since 2021, had been a career employee at the agency for more than two decades.
The NCES administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the largest nationally representative measure of student achievement. The most recent NAEP results, released in January, showed that U.S. students continue to struggle post-pandemic, with eighth-grade reading scores hitting their lowest level in the test’s history.
Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dismantled the federal research agency overseeing NCES, canceling nearly $900 million in research contracts. However, NAEP was expected to be preserved, according to Education Department officials.
The White House previously called the declining student performance “unacceptable” and a major concern. The administration has not provided a reason for Carr’s removal, and the Education Department has declined to comment on whether NAEP’s future is in jeopardy.
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