Gutting Special Education Research Dismantles Progress & Threatens Education for All
On February 10, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the independent research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, abruptly terminated 89 federally funded research contracts. This decision, which affected approximately $900 million in Congressionally approved grants, represents a profound setback for the field of education, particularly special education research. These cuts not only disrupt research initiatives but also actively reverse decades of progress in evidence-based policy and practices.
Dr. Nathan Stevenson, Associate Professor of Special Education at Kent State University, underscores the gravity of these cuts, stating, “The cancellation of grants and contracts from the Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences will have severe short-term and long-term consequences for educators, communities, and the American public. IES is the leading mechanism for funding cutting-edge research, innovation, and evidence-based practice. Defunding IES is a willful step toward nationwide public illiteracy.”
The Critical Role of Federal Investment in Educational Research
Federal investment in educational research has been crucial in improving outcomes for students with disabilities, driving the development and implementation of evidence-based practices. These investments have expanded access to effective instruction and equipped educators with the tools to support every learner. Over the years, innovations in special education research have served as an impetus for improvements in general education. Continued funding for special education is essential because decades of federally funded research have established evidence-based practices that improve outcomes for students with and without disabilities.
These investments have led to proven interventions in reading, writing, math, and behavior and best practices for effective instruction across content areas, enabling educators to provide targeted support that fosters academic success and independence. Such research efforts are responsible for the current science of reading and math advocacy efforts to improve literacy and math instruction for all students. Cutting funding would jeopardize these advancements, leaving schools without the resources to implement effective instruction and interventions. Maintaining robust funding ensures all students continue benefiting from scientifically validated strategies, promoting equity in education and preparing them for meaningful participation in society and the workforce.
Dr. Russell Gersten, Executive Director of Instructional Research Group and Professor Emeritus of Special Education, University of Oregon, reflects on his career: “When I began in the field, the thought of a student with a learning disability attending college was considered ludicrous. Now, it is a reality. Research on how to effectively teach students with learning disabilities how to read has been a major factor. Many of the approaches in use in the 1970s were ineffective, and it took decades to unravel how to do this through explicit instruction. Advances in mathematics have been more recent but no less impressive. Because of research advances, students with disabilities can now learn mathematics in a way that they understand the concepts and will be able to apply this knowledge in all the many jobs that require aspects of mathematics. Same for writing. This research does improve options for career training and jobs.”
Beyond direct instructional benefits, the elimination of these research initiatives threatens the ability to assess and address the broader needs of students. Dr. Christina Cipriano stresses the importance of continued research to ensure students with disabilities receive appropriate educational support:
“Students with disabilities must be seen in order to be served by their public education. In the absence of evaluations and research that transparently and meaningfully capture how students with disabilities are faring academically, socially, and emotionally relative to their peers nationwide, opportunities to improve curriculum, instructional practices, and resources in schools so that all students have the opportunity to benefit from their public education are erased.”
A Call to Action
These investments have expanded access to effective instruction and equipped educators with the tools to support every learner. These cuts will widen opportunity gaps for the most vulnerable students and ultimately burden the U.S. with greater economic and social costs by deepening educational inequities. Especially because Congress funded these research grants, Congress should hear about the consequences and negative impact of cuts to special education research.
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Here are further perspectives from those directly impacted by these cuts:
“Federal funding provides us [educators] with a mechanism for bridging research to practice. Many IES-funded projects deliver timely, no-cost professional development and inform educator decision-making across the U.S. In our projects, the instructional methods aim to support students with disabilities and those most at risk for experiencing challenges in schools. We have promising evidence that our instruction has made a positive impact on both short and long-term outcomes for students with and at-risk for disabilities. Without IES funding, we will not be able to continue the critical work of examining the conditions under which our instruction is most effective. Furthermore, we have cultivated deep and long-lasting partnerships with local school districts. Stripping funding from education research will essentially wash away the many years of hard work we have all invested in advancing the field and improving public education in the U.S. Across the nation, these actions will have devastating consequences for students, families, and educators—particularly those who rely on special education services.”
-Anonymous
“We are engaged in multiple research projects that address long-standing and urgent problems that undermine the civil rights of disabled students to a free and appropriate public education. These projects directly benefit the >80 schools that are engaged in them, and the students with disabilities who attend those schools. Moreover, they both reflect investments in products that will be freely available to districts around the country, providing them with crucial, evidence-based resources they need to address one of the most persistent problems facing special education.
Currently, these projects continue to be funded, but the uncertainty caused by haphazard, arbitrary changes to federal funding for scholarships has created new demands on our time — pulling us away from conducting good research to plan for the possibility that our funding will be pulled and we will be unable to fulfill the commitments we’ve made to our partner schools and their students. If these grants are canceled, our partner schools will be harmed, and the investments that the Department of Education has made in these products will be squandered.
In addition, our capacity to carry out these projects is impacted by the removal of crucial data systems from the Department of Education’s portfolio. For example, we use NCES data to better understand how our participating schools compare to other schools around the country, and thus, how our findings might generalize to other schools. Without the broad national data systems that NCES supports, our capacity to contextualize our work is seriously impaired. “
-Anonymous
“Federal investment in educational research has been crucial in improving outcomes for students with disabilities, driving the development and implementation of evidence-based practices. These investments have expanded access to effective instruction and equipped educators with the tools to support every learner. Cutting this funding and shutting down IES wouldn’t just stall progress—it would reverse it. It sends a troubling message that education is not a national priority, worsening the severe shortage of education workforce. These cuts will widen opportunity gaps for the most vulnerable students and ultimately burden the U.S. with greater economic and social costs by deepening educational inequities.”
-Dr. Eunsoo Cho
“The drastic cuts to IES funding are fiscally irresponsible and have a direct impact on both our public and private schools serving students with disabilities, families, and our nation. IES supports critical research needed to develop cost effective instruction and interventions for students with disabilities. Outcomes of funded studies allow for the determination of what works, for whom, and under what conditions. Further, outcomes of successful studies facilitate intervention implementation in a cost-effective manner ultimately allowing students the opportunity to learn the mathematics and reading skills necessary to successfully enter the workforce. There is also the potential to lose valuable resources provided through the IES supported What Works Clearinghouse, including practice guides, intervention reports, and research study reviews that assist districts with making informed decisions about curriculum and interventions for students.”
-Anonymous
“Research funds that we (The University of Texas at Austin – UT) have received from the federal government have been used to work with hundreds of teachers (and thousands of their students) to improve math word-problem solving and fraction knowledge. Many of these students had unfinished math learning from previous grade levels, and it was essential to provide timely support to these students. One of our teachers recently commented: The UT Math Project helped improve my students’ confidence and show academic growth in my students who previously struggled with math. Another teacher commented: The UT Math Project took my struggling mathematicians and made them into confident problem solvers!”
– Dr. Sarah Powell