Perspective on dismissal of top quant for US ED statistics
What happened to Commissioner Peggy Carr?
In August of 2021, Peggy G. Carr was nominated to be Commissioner of the US National Center for Education Statistics. A statistician by training who earned a doctorate in 1982 from Howard University, she assumed office after she had worked in NCES since. the 1990s.
On 24 February 2025, Commissioner Carr was “placed on administrative leave” from her position. According to Jill Barshay of the Hechinger Report, the dismissal of the US’s top education analyst “came so abruptly that she only had time to grab a few personal photos and her coat before a security officer escorted her out of her office.”
Ms Barshay reported the story in this way on 14 July 2025:
Peggy Carr’s last day on the job came so abruptly that she only had time to grab a few personal photos and her coat before a security officer escorted her out of her office and into a chilly February afternoon. She still doesn’t know why she was summarily dismissed as commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), where she helped build the National Assessment of Educational Progress into the influential Nation’s Report Card. NCES is the federal government’s third-largest statistical agency after the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Running it for three and a half years was the capstone of Carr’s 35-year career at the Education Department.
The NCES, which was established soon after the US Civil War, is charged with collecting, analyzing, and reporting national data about education, ranging from early childhood through adulthood, and including special education. It reported a Digest of Education Statistics about (“the condition of education”), financial matters (“revenues and expenses”), and more.
Given the recent US Supreme Court’s stay of an injunction that stopped the dismantling of the US Department of Education, Ms. Barshay’s coverage of Commissioner Carr’s dismissal may be a cautionary tale. At the very least, Ms. Barshay’s report about how Commissioner Carr was treated is a sad commentary on the US government’s administration of education.