House Passes Bill Diminishing Stature and Autonomy of National Center for Education Statistics; Senate Plans Unclear

By Steve Pierson posted 06-04-2014 09:31

  

[7/10/14 Update: ASA, AERA, and nine other organizations send letter to Senate HELP Committee expressing their concerns.
8/1/14: Save our data! Protect the integrity of education statistics, by Chester E. Finn, Jr.
8/28/14: Keeping the National Center for Education Statistics independent, by Laura w. Perna, The Hill, 8/28/14
10/30/14: Senate Panel Agrees to House Provisions Diminishing NCES Autonomy and Stature, 9/17/14 ASA Community blog entry.
10/30/14: Erosion of Federal Statistical Agencies Puts Sound Policy at Risk, Robert M. Groves and Kenneth Prewitt, Roll Call, 10/30/14.]

In early May, the House passed a bill reauthorizing the Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which includes the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and three other centers. IES was created in 2002 with the original IES authorization bill, the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA).

The bill the House passed in May, H.R. 4366, the Strengthening Education through Research Act (SETRA), contains provisions that diminish NCES authority, autonomy, and stature beyond provisions of ESRA and the 2012 law, The Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011 (PAESA.) These provisions are very concerning because, as explained in this 2009 letter from then ASA President Sally Morton to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, "NCES’ autonomy and authority are a requisite for its products and data to be objective, accurate, and publicly accepted—all essential requirements to the central purpose of informing national education policy" and "Bolstering NCES’ stature will help to better inform policy decisions within the Department of Education."

One of the concerning provisions in SETRA is the removal of the presidential appointment of the NCES commissioner, transferring the responsibility to the IES director. The NCES Commissioner was originally designated as a presidential appointment with senate confirmation but senate confirmation was removed in the 2012 law PAESA. (For more information on this, see House Approves Senate Bill Making Census Directorship Fixed Term, Removes Senate Confirmation for BJS & NCES Heads.)

Other SETRA provisions—adding reporting requirements for the NCES commissioner to the IES director and relegating other responsibilities from the commissioner to the director—are concerning because they further undermine NCES autonomy and authority.

As explained in the National Academies' Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, which the ASA Board endorsed, an agency's autonomy, authority, and stature are vital to ensuring the agency's data be objective, independent, and relevant, as noted above.

It's not yet clear whether the Senate will act on SETRA with so few legislative days left in this Congress but the ASA has already had key meetings on the Senate side and will be working with other organizations to oppose the SETRA provisions further diminishing NCES autonomy, authority, and stature. 

For more information on SETRA, see these news items from the American Education Research Association (AERA): House Passes IES Reauthorization Bill: AERA Prepares for Potential Senate Action and House Committee Advances IES Reauthorization Bill.

Besides the 2009 letter from then ASA President Sally Morton to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and ASA Board endorsement of  Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, the ASA has been active on this topic in other ways. In 2011, the ASA Board endorsed the NCES recommendations in the AERA Report and Recommendations for the Reauthorization of the Institute of Education Sciences and signed onto a letter to Senate leadership opposing the removal of senate confirmation for the NCES commissioner.

For more information on the past NCES developments, see these blog entries:

​See other ASA Science Policy blog entries. For ASA science policy updates, follow @ASA_SciPol on Twitter.

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