The department tracks student achievement, manages college financial aid and sends K-12 schools money to support students with disabilities and lower-income communities, among other things.

James E. Dennehy, the highly respected leader of the largest and most important field office in the bureau, said in an email to staff that the F.B.I. was in “a battle of our own.”

Studies are more likely to influence conservation law if they are published in specialist journals — but researchers worry that their true impact is being ignored in hiring and promotion decisions.