National Council on Teacher Quality opposes the executive order to dismantle the Department of Education

The President’s executive order to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education (USED), were Congress to act on it, would negatively impact the quality of teachers in America’s classrooms and cripple our work to improve outcomes for students across our nation. Without federal monitoring and oversight, states are likely to weaken standards for student learning and shirk accountability for student outcomes.

At the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), we are on a mission to ensure every child has effective teachers and every teacher has the opportunity to be effective. Many of us are former teachers, as well as district and state policymakers. In our roles in the past and in our work today, we have experienced the value of a strong federal education agency. Our mission depends on four essential functions that are currently executed by USED:

1. Administering National Assessments: We count on the Department to administer national assessments and report the student outcomes. The Nation’s Report Card, also known as NAEP, has long been a critical tool to track the performance of our education system, provide transparency, and compare state performance. Without NAEP, we will not know to what extent children in Massachusetts are reaching the same standards of performance as children in Mississippi. In its absence, the “honesty gap” may prevail as state assessments may not hold the same level of rigor and may paint a false picture of children’s proficiency and it may become too easy to gloss over the disparities in whether different groups of students are learning to read and do math. It is the federal government’s role to provide us with this critical data. At NCTQ, we use these data to learn from leading states and call on laggards to improve.
2. Data Collection and Research: The Department regularly gathers and publishes comprehensive data on student achievement, workforce trends, and teacher quality. The Department commissions research on which instructional methods and interventions work (and which do not). This information is essential for researchers, policymakers, and educators to identify areas needing improvement and to develop targeted interventions.​ For example, NCTQ relies on the federal Title II data to give us insights into how many teachers are entering and persisting in teacher preparation—a valuable tool as states identify their needs, the extent of their supply and demand, and grapple with teacher shortages. Moreover, evidence about what does and does not work in education can help make the entire system more efficient, prompting states and districts to focus on the approaches that are most likely to support their students’ learning and abandon investments in those that are ineffective.
3. Funding and Financial Aid: Federal programs such as Title I funding for low-income schools and Pell Grants for higher education are administered by the Department, ensuring that resources are allocated to support all students. ​
4. Civil Rights Enforcement: The Department plays a pivotal role in enforcing civil rights laws within educational settings, safeguarding all students from discrimination, and ensuring equal access to educational opportunities.​ For example, the Department needs to monitor states’ efforts to uphold the provision in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act that all students should be ensured equal access to qualified and effective teachers—and collect and report the necessary data on the distribution of their teacher talent among their schools.

As a nonpartisan organization dedicated to teacher quality, NCTQ calls on Congress to maintain these essential functions and continue to house them within the Department of Education, which has decades of experience focused on successfully carrying out these duties in a coherent and comprehensive way.

It is imperative that the federal government protect and ensure transparency on student outcomes, access to research and data on what works (and what does not) in schools, equitable funding, and maintaining all students’ civil rights. Eliminating the Department of Education will likely contribute to worsening results for students, especially those who are most in need of federal protection.

We remain committed to collaborating with federal, state, and local entities to promote policies that enhance teacher quality and, in turn, increase positive student outcomes and accelerate opportunities for all students and for our nation.