The government has long researched high school experiences. Then DOGE cut the effort

"The academic choices you make as a teenager can shape the rest of your life: If you take high school classes for college credit, you're more likely to go to college; and if you take at least 12 credits of classes during your first year there, you're more likely to finish your degree. These and insights from thousands of other studies can all be traced to a trove of data the federal government started collecting more than 50 years ago."

"But earlier this year, that effort came to a halt. Researchers, educators and policymakers have relied on this data to form conclusions and shape policy about American education everything from how high school counselors should be spending their days to when students should start taking higher-level math classes. On a single day in February, the Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) canceled the long-running series of surveys, known as the high school longitudinal studies."

"The contracts were worth tens of millions of dollars. The surveys started in 1972, and have gathered data on more than 100,000 high school students through their first decade or so of adulthood sometimes longer. "For 50 years, we've been mapping a timeline of progress of our high school system, and we're going to have a big blank," said Adam Gamoran, who was nominated to lead the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Education Department's research and statistics arm, under President Biden,"

High school course choices influence long-term college enrollment and completion probabilities. A federal longitudinal survey program begun in 1972 tracked over 100,000 students through their first decade of adulthood and underpinned thousands of studies. Researchers, educators, and policymakers used the data to guide counseling practices and curriculum timing. In February, the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency canceled the high school longitudinal studies and ended contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. The Education Department stated it is reviewing longitudinal studies' return on investment for taxpayers while maintaining mission-critical research and statistics functions.

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