On February 1, 2025, a Saturday, as the first flurry of actions by the second Trump Administration foreshadowed the year’s dramatic impacts on science and education, I compiled a list of a few related news items that I thought might be of interest for our DMV sociology readership. As a scholar of higher education, it had occurred to me that I might be picking up on details and sources that would not be as immediately apparent to other researchers and educators, but that could have important consequences for sociology and beyond.

I created a separate page on the DCSS website entitled, “Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions,” and started it with notes about dramatic changes at NSF, the resignation of Census Bureau Director Robert Santos, and links to several sources for tracking actions at the federal level. I had no idea at the time that I would end up adding to that list more than once a week throughout the rest of the year.

I’ve restructured the page numerous times and added major sections tracking actions at NIH and the hollowing out of the US Department of Education. Later in the year, I was able to add sections on calls for collective action and resources providing help for federal workers and assistance in locating federal data. The final two posts brought the page full circle with major updates about changes at NSF, published in two parts in Science: “Five things to know about NSF’s new rules on merit review” (12/24) Major changes that apparently conflict with recommendations in a recent major report from the National Science Board. “The National Science Foundation just had a big reorganization. Here are five things to know” (12/29) Provides information on the restructuring of directorates and employment at NSF.

Although the consequences of Administration actions continue to reverberate as we move into a new year, I’ve decided to archive the 2025 page and not continue with a separate page of updates in 2026. As relevant news items emerge, I’ll post them to the News section of the website; please feel free to send suggestions to dcsociologicalsociety@gmail.com.

I wanted to highlight three resources that I’ve found particularly useful as we continue to make our way through this changing landscape:

Unbreaking is “a community-powered knowledge-making project, made by a growing collective of volunteers with experience in journalism, tech, mutual aid, government, research, and organizing.” It’s organized by issues, and I have found the weekly newsletters very thorough and informative.

For those of us who use federal data, 2025 has created a great deal of uncertainty. There are several different efforts under way to preserve federal data resources, some of which are listed on the 2025 resource page. To keep up with ongoing changes, I signed up for the Federal Data Forum established by the Population Reference Bureau. You can sign up for a daily digest e-mail, and perhaps contribute information yourself. The forum covers a wide variety of topics and agencies.

Finally, for those of us working in or interested in education, The Hechinger Report’s Jill Barshay provided a helpful—and sobering—overview of the year, “How Trump 2.0 upended education research and statistics in one year.” I’ve found Hechinger to be a valuable resource for education news over the years, and would encourage you to sign up for one of their relevant newsletters.

In closing, I want to note that I posted this item under my own byline to make to make it clear that these recommendations represent my personal opinions and not an organizational statement from DCSS. I’m posting on a weekend when the Trump Administration has engaged in further illegal and unconstitutional actions that only compound the damage partially chronicled on the 2025 resource page. That page was never intended to cover everything the Administration has done, but I hope it serves to remind us of some of the work that lies ahead. And I hope you will join with other DMV sociologists to support DCSS in 2026 in connecting our work across many different situations and the whole spectrum of topics. The Executive Committee is working to organize events in the coming months, new issues of The Sociologist: Sociology From & About The DMV are in the works, and we will continue to update this website, with your support. Thank you.

From the American Statistical Association (ASA)

" With the support of Lumina Foundation and William T. Grant Foundation, the ASA is launching a project to define a revitalized National Center for Education Statistics that is more efficient and agile. While our primary audience is policymakers in the administration and Congress, we want broad input and discussion for what could be a once-in-a-lifetime discussion. Our goal is to publish recommendations in spring 2026 for discussion and consideration. To inform those recommendations, we are hosting small roundtables with key audiences this fall and winter."

Read the complete announcement and sign up for updates on the ASA website.

"The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Summer Conference will be held from June 26-28, 2026, in New Orleans! Join us for thought-provoking presentations, dynamic discussions, and opportunities to connect with others who share a commitment to addressing important social issues. This year's conference theme is “Lespwa fe viv” (Hope Makes Us Live): Using Research and Action to Cultivate Joy, Resilience, and Liberation.

"As SPSSI celebrates its 90th anniversary, we look to New Orleans, a place where joy itself can be a form of resistance and where communities have rebuilt again and again in the face of structural neglect, racism, and displacement. The conference theme, drawn from the Haitian Creole expression lespwa fè viv (“hope makes us live”), honors SPSSI’s historical commitment to confronting injustice while inviting us to imagine the futures we must build together. Across nine decades, SPSSI scholars have challenged systems of oppression, defended human rights, and advanced psychological science that speaks truth to power. Yet today’s current landscape demands renewed courage, creativity, and hope."

The submission deadline is February 15, 2026.

Read the complete announcement on the SPSSI website.

The Census Bureau is seeking public comments on proposed revisions to the National Survey of Children's Health before it goes to the Office of Management and Budget. These data help shape policies and programs that support children's health and well-being across the U.S.

The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting public comment on the utility of data collected through the NSCH and ways the survey can be enhanced in the future. Specific plans for 2026 include increasing the survey sample so that reliable state-level estimates can be produced with fewer years of pooled data and continuing to oversample specific populations in California and eight other states.

Read the complete Federal Register notice online.

Deadline to comment: February 3, 2026.

By Stephanie Richards, Kari Williams, and Sarah Flood

"The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey is the official source of information about poverty in the United States. Since 1968, the ASEC has been used to create the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and has included the variables needed to create that measure. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and the variables needed to create it were first released by the Census Bureau in 2010, reporting the SPM for 20091. In contrast to the OPM, the SPM provides a more complete picture of the economic wellbeing of American households.

"The value of the SPM is apparent – it is a comprehensive and nuanced measure that accounts for the diversity of living arrangements, variability in cost of living, and a wider array of available financial resources and demands. However, the temporal coverage of SPM is limited; the Census Bureau only has data back to 2010. Over the last ten years, researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy (CPSP) have eliminated this constraint by compiling the data necessary to create SPM and make it available back to 1968, and have shared the data with the research community via the CPSP Historical SPM Data Portal.

"...In this blog post, we briefly describe differences between the components – family, resources, and needs – used to create OPM and (historical) SPM, preview CPSP’s “anchored” poverty variables that facilitate comparisons over time that reference a set cost-of-living standard, and share suggestions for further reading (because we know you are going to want to learn even more about this!)."

Read the complete blog post online

From the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

"Please contribute to a new, open-source collection of educational materials designed to strengthen learning for a democracy in question. We seek materials across disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and professional studies. 

"Democracy as a governing system thrives when it adheres to standards and practices such as truth, fairness, equity and equal opportunity, civic participation, checks and balances, nonviolent disagreement, and public deliberation. In a governing system of, by, and for the people, interpersonal norms are equally important, norms such as inclusion, compassion, decency, honesty, and shared responsibility for each other and our communities, the nation, and the world.

"Democracy needs to be taught and learned. These systems and norms are examples of the content we seek.

"If you have content to contribute, please fill out our description form. You do not need to upload materials at this time. Submit your description by January 18, 2026."

From the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), 11/12/25, by Mark Mather and Beth Jarosz

"In the past nine months, many public datasets have been altered or removed, thousands of statistical agency staff have retired or been laid off, and the accuracy of trusted federal statistics has been questioned and politicized.

"The strain on taxpayer-funded public data has been demoralizing—not just for the policymakers, researchers, businesses, and others who rely on federal statistics, but for the civil servants who protect them from misuse. The recent cancellation of a key survey measuring hunger in America was particularly alarming. But there’s one upside to this state of affairs: It’s mobilizing people who care about federal data to act.

"Federal data stakeholders have been working hard to safeguard data by archiving thousands of at-risk federal datasets, tracking changes to federal datasets, and documenting the value of federal data. PRB also launched a Federal Data Forum for people to share information about the latest threats to public data and how organizations and individuals can help. More than 600 concerned data users have joined the forum since May. ...

"Millions of people rely on federal statistics but few step up to defend them. So, how can data users give public data a voice? Here are five things you can do."

Read the complete blog post on the PRB website. Also, check out our DCSS "Resources for Tracking Trump Administration Actions," updated throughout 2025.

From the State Health Access Data Assistance Center, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota

"The Landscape of Major Federal Health Survey Data Releases in 2025" by 
Andrea Stewart, Research Fellow (November 13, 2025)

"A Brief Overview of Several Federal Health-Related Surveys" by 
SHADAC Staff and Colin Planalp, Associate Director for Emerging Health Policy Issues (November 10, 2025)

Interactive Survey Data Finder Tool

"The Higher Education Randomized Controlled Trial (THE-RCT) study aims to capitalize on existing data from postsecondary education RCTs to foster substantive and methodological scholarship and encourage teaching and learning opportunities. The cornerstone of THE-RCT is a restricted access file (RAF). This version contains individual-participant data from more than 30 of MDRC's higher education RCTs covering over 50 institutions and over 50,000 students. The data were originally collected as part of different randomized controlled trial evaluations of a variety of higher education interventions. The data were collected for different student samples, at different times, and in different locations for each study."

Distributed by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2025-12-03. (https://doi.org/10.3886/E240388V3)

"The Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (JWM) is launching a new article type: Research Interrupted — designed to spotlight meaningful and robust STEM education research that was prematurely terminated due to recent shifts in federal funding priorities. JWM recognizes the immense intellectual and emotional labor that you, as researchers, invest in these important projects, and we want to create a platform to elevate the insights from these projects so they can be shared, valued, and built upon.

Research Interrupted articles will be shorter in length than our traditional articles (under 4,000 words), with abbreviated literature reviews. Peer reviewers will receive guidance to calibrate the same quality standards for traditional JWM articles to the nature of the interrupted research. To reduce financial burden on authors, we have negotiated a reduced Gold Open Access APC with our publisher (from $1,500 to $750 for verified terminated projects). Green Open Access remains free of charge.

JWM recognizes it has been a difficult year for our communities, and we are here to support you. We are now accepting Letters of Intent to submit (LOI) through December 31, 2025. LOIs will indicate that authors plan to submit a full manuscript before December 2027. This is not a special issue; instead, Research Interrupted articles will be incorporated into future issues of the journal, following the same process as traditional JWM articles."

For more information, please see the full announcement