Institute of Education Sciences IES

Critics long complained that federal education research was slow, politicized, and of uneven quality. The Education Sciences Reform Act, signed on November 5, 2002, replaced the department's research office with the Institute of Education Sciences, modeled loosely on the National Institutes of Health, and gave it a measure of independence. Its Director serves a six-year term after Senate confirmation and is advised by the National Board for Education Sciences.

IES has four centers: the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Education Research, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, and the National Center for Special Education Research. It funds rigorous studies of what works in teaching and learning, evaluates federal programs, supports ten regional educational laboratories that help states and districts use evidence, and runs the What Works Clearinghouse, which reviews research on curricula and interventions.

In February 2025 the administration canceled dozens of IES research and data contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and a March 2025 reduction in force cut its staff by most of its workforce as part of efforts to shrink the Education Department. Supporters said many contracts were wasteful and research could be done more cheaply, while researchers, state education officials, and members of both parties warned that the loss of independent evidence would make it harder to judge which programs help students.