Immeasurable Talent: Trump's Erosion of School Accountability and Choice

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is the premier standardized test used by policymakers and education experts to guide their policymaking decisions. Its use as a tool to gather long-term trends of students and the rigor that goes into its curriculum earned it the moniker of the Nation's Report Card. But due to Trump's recent cuts to the Department of Education, many of its core functions are being gutted. Layoffs of bureaucrats involved in all aspects of NAEP's lifecycle have crippled the programs core functions of assessing the state of the nation's education. This paper analyzes what those impacts may be and how they fits into Trump's education agenda of deregulation of education and school choice. I conclude, that not only will this policy have a large impact on future policies due to data droughts but this also serves as a missed opportunity for Trump to promote the achievement gap between public, private, and charter schools to push for his school choice agenda.