On August 24, 2021, President Joe Biden announced the appointment of Peggy G. Carr as commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics in the Institute of Education Sciences at the US Department of Education. Prior to serving as commissioner, Carr was the associate commissioner for assessment at NCES, where she oversaw the National Assessment of Educational Progress and a portfolio of large-scale international assessments, including the Program for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Carr also served as acting commissioner of NCES between 2016 and 2018. Here, she answers a few questions so we can get to know her better.

Peggy Carr

What about this position appealed to you?

The role of the commissioner for education statistics in reporting on the condition of education in this country has deepened in scope and relevance over the past 150 years, which is how long the US Congress has recognized and supported the importance of education in this country. However, access to a quality education, the most critical pathway to achieving the American dream, is not a given. Accordingly, for me, the appeal of this position lies in the importance of reporting on the condition of education in the context of equity. And in no other time greater than today, has diversity—in all its kinds and shapes—defined what it means to live meaningfully, comfortably, and equitably in this country.

As the first woman and person of color to be presidentially appointed to the position, I have experienced firsthand why it’s critical to monitor and report on education indicators and other federal education research that enable all communities to see themselves in our statistics.

Describe the top 2–3 priorities you have for the National Center for Education Statistics.

As a career staffer within the US Department of Education for decades, I’ve had ample time and opportunity to formulate a vision for the National Center for Education Statistics. I have three priorities: (1) innovate; (2) strengthen partnerships; and (3) improve the integration of equity throughout our methodologies in achieving the center’s mission.

The emergence of the reconceptualized field of data science and a world in which technology is ubiquitous to everything we do means decades-old data collection methods, analytical techniques, tools, and even ways of reporting and disseminating information and data have significant room for improvement and innovation. Such innovations also translate into new forms of indicators (i.e., digital process data), better ways of measuring old constructs, and computing power for managing and linking data sets that can be executed in seconds, not days.

Similarly, with minimum effort, NCES can reduce burden on its local and state partners through improved efficiencies in sampling, participation coordination, and improved two-way communication channels. For example, NCES needs to strengthen its partnerships by employing liaisons with ‘boots on the ground.’

And finally, by improving the integration of equality throughout our procedures for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on statistical education indicators, we can better illuminate the condition of education—our core mission. Even who is sitting around the table when program decisions are made should not be exempted from this priority.

What do you see as your biggest challenge(s) for NCES?

Complacency. “If it’s not broke, why fix it?” The good news is NCES career staff are some of the most highly satisfied and motivated employees in the federal system—they love what they do and see immense value in their role in improving the American education system. However, these assets can also have negative implications. Great employees with decades-long careers are good at what they do, but it means change is hard.

NCES needs to do a better job of (a) keeping staff engaged and participating in their professional communities, (b) implementing effective succession planning, and (c) attracting and retaining new talent. It’s hard to compete against the Googles of the world, but that’s essentially what we are doing. We need effective strategies for engaging and incentivizing new and bright talent to stay when they venture into the world of public service.

How can the statistical community help you?

To remain in the forefront of state-of-the art methods, technologies, analytical tools, and reporting, NCES needs more statisticians, psychometricians, data scientists, and program analysts while significantly decreasing its reliance on contracts for meeting its mandate. NCES is the third largest of the 13 federally recognized statistical agencies, but about ninth when ranked by its ratio of staff to dollars spent and the scope and diversity of its programs.

While NCES is unlikely to ever catch up with its similarly situated statistical agency peers in staffing, even a modest increase in staff would result in notable contributions to the education community. This is because NCES staff are extremely knowledgeable of its rich and complex data sets and could contribute so much more to the dialogue within the education statistical community if it had better bandwidth. I am confident that stakeholders who are advocates for richer, more actionable education statistics and who are friends of NCES know and support this plight.

Prior to your tenure, what do you see as the biggest recent accomplishment of the agency?

In recent years, successfully moving the National Assessment of Educational Progress from paper and pencil to digital assessments using a well-designed scientific bridge study to protect decades of mathematics and reading trend lines was a major accomplishment. Equally important, NAEP’s leadership role in the large-scale assessment industry in capturing the digital process clicks from those assessments and using them for improving item development instruction design, quality control, and analysis and reporting is particularly noteworthy.

On the administrative side, the use of geospatial technology linking Census data and NCES surveys to explore better indicators of school poverty is groundbreaking and has great promise for improving measures of socioeconomic status for local, state, and federal agencies.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention how effective NCES was in demonstrating how nimble and flexible it was capable of being in the wake of COVID-19. As a partial response to the COVID-19 health crisis, NCES administered—in record time—its first monthly pulse survey of schools and the impact of the pandemic on schools, educators, and instruction.