Despite massive layoffs that left the U.S. Department of Education with a skeleton crew in charge of administering and analyzing the Nation's Report Card, the agency said on Thursday the assessment will continue as planned next year.
"The Department will ensure that NAEP [the National Assessment of Educational Progress] continues to provide invaluable data on learning across the U.S," said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in a statement on Thursday. "The 2026 NAEP assessments in reading and math are on track for administration in January 2026."
In addition to assessing math and reading in 4th and 8th grades in January 2026, a letter sent to states Thursday shows U.S. history and civics will be administered for 8th graders as planned prior to the March layoffs.
NCES is preparing for the 2025-26 cycle now and will administer the assessments between Jan. 26 and March 20, 2026, according to the letter. Math and reading results for the nation, states, and districts participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment, which tracks academic progress in urban districts, will be released in early 2027.
National results for civics and U.S. history are expected to be released later in 2027. District and state-level data for those assessments will not be released.
Melissa McGrath, chief of staff for the Council of Chief State School Officers, said in a statement that NAEP "offers an important measure of student achievement and we are pleased that it will be administered in reading and math in 2026."
The department’s update on testing in all subject areas — including optional ones — partially addresses concerns that have been stewing for over a month among education and testing experts that cuts to the agency would sacrifice the integrity of the Nation's Report Card.
Former employees of the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees the Nation's Report Card, had worried that the mass layoffs would result in a "barebones" assessment that produced lower-quality data.
The Education Department has maintained that most of NAEP's work was done through contracts, which it said remain in place.
“Despite spending hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds annually, IES has failed to effectively fulfill its mandate to identify best practices and new approaches that improve educational outcomes and close achievement gaps for students," Madi Biedermann, the department's deputy assistant secretary for communications, told sister publication Higher Ed Dive in March. Biederman said the Institute of Education Sciences is going to be restructured "to improve student outcomes while maintaining rigorous scientific integrity and cost effectiveness."
In her statement Thursday, McMahon said NAEP is "a critical tool for parents, educators, and experts to assess our students’ preparedness and advise on necessary interventions."
McMahon said that while the "final mission" — to close the department to the maximum extent possible as ordered by President Donald Trump in a March executive order — continues, she is still "committed to providing states with the tools and best practices to advance the educational achievement of our nation’s students."
Modernizations of the assessment, which have been in the works for years, will also continue, the Thursday letter to states said — including pilot assessments in mathematics and reading in grades 4, 8, and 12 to help the assessment transition to updated mathematics and reading frameworks.
It is still unclear whether plans for other innovations such as remote, device-agnostic and adaptive administrations of the exam will still roll out.
In 2022, NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr — who was put on administrative leave as part of March’s layoffs — told K-12 Dive that assessments were set to become device agnostic in 2026, meaning students were going to be able to eventually test on any device. The Education Department had also planned to pull out most of its field administration staff, relying instead on school staff to administer assessments where possible, Carr said.
