A 95-page internal report to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon recommends a sweeping overhaul of the Institute of Education Sciences, including a “thorough review” of major National Center for Education Statistics surveys and possible discontinuation of some collections. The report asserts that many longstanding NCES data efforts are administrative choices rather than explicit statutory mandates and recommends six structural shifts to modernize IES. The proposal follows last year’s layoffs that left NCES heavily reduced and has sparked concern among researchers and state education officials about the availability and continuity of national education indicators, from high school outcomes to workforce and educator surveys. Any reconfiguration of IES data sets could reshape policy-making, federal reporting requirements, and longitudinal research used by colleges, K‑12 systems, and accreditors.