Speakers and Panelists :: Alexander C. McCormick
Alexander C. McCormick is a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he directs the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as well as the Foundation's survey research program. Developed in the 1970s, the Carnegie classification system is a widely-used taxonomy of colleges and universities in the United States. Under McCormick's leadership, the Foundation is engaged in a major overhaul of its classification system, with changes to take effect in 2005.
In addition to his current work on change and differentiation in U.S. higher education, McCormick has studied how students navigate higher education, specifically how different enrollment patterns relate to changes in educational aspirations as well as degree completion and time to degree. Prior to joining the Carnegie Foundation, he conducted a wide range of data development and analysis activities under contract to the National Center for Education Statistics. This work included studies of undergraduate transfer, credit production, and access to graduate and professional education.
McCormick serves on the executive committee of the Council for Public Policy in Higher Education of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and he recently completed service on the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative's executive committee. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, the technical advisory panel of the National Survey of Student Engagement, and the technical review panel of the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty.
McCormick holds a Ph.D. in education and sociology from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College.