WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Education, under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, has earned high marks from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform for its work to modernize and secure its information technology systems. In fact, in rankings released last week, the Department earned an A+ on the December 2019 Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard.

The Department achieved top marks in five of the seven graded categories, including transparency and risk management, software licensing, agency CIO authority enhancements, portfolio review, and data center optimization initiative. This is a major about-face for the agency, which, just four years ago, under the previous administration, scored an F.

"We committed from day one to putting students first and making sure that what’s best for them is at the center of everything we do," said Secretary DeVos. "Through our Chief Information Officer Jason Gray’s leadership, we have been able to reform our IT infrastructure to better and more efficiently serve students while at the same time, reducing costs to taxpayers. I’m grateful to Jason for his vision and his commitment to the Department’s mission."

The FITARA scorecard, issued biannually, uses data from the Government Accountability Office to make determinations. This is the ninth iteration of the FITARA scorecard, which was first released in November 2015. The Department’s grade has risen steadily under the leadership of Secretary DeVos and CIO Jason Gray. Now, the Department is one of three leading agencies out of a group of 24.