Robert Atwell, president of the American Council on Education, will chair the group. Virginia Smith, president emerita of Vassar College, is vice chair. Other members include Julie Davis Bell, education program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures; Carol A. Cartwright, president of Kent State University; Richard Chait, director of the Center for Higher Education Governance and Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park; and Lyman Glenny, professor emeritus, UC Berkeley.
Also on the committee are Paul Goren, director of education policy studies, National Governors' Association; Alan E. Guskin, president, Antioch University; D. Bruce Johnstone, university professor and former chancellor, State University of New York; and Richard W. Jonsen, executive director, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
Additional members include Anne-Marie McCartan, vice chancellor, Virginia Community College System; Eleanor McMahon, distinguished visiting professor, A. Alfred Taubman Public Policy Center, Brown University; Kenneth P. Mortimer, president, University of Hawaii; and Barry Munitz, chancellor, California State University.
Also participating are Donald G. Phelps, W.K. Kellogg Regents Professor, Community College Leadership Program, University of Texas, Austin; Piedad Robertson, secretary of education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and Guillermo Rodriguez, Jr., executive director, Latino Issues Forum. The research team, directed by Patrick Callan, executive director of the Center, and Richard C. Richardson, Jr., professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Arizona State University, is completing a pilot study of the state of Illinois. Seven states will be studied, including California. The project has been funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the James Irvine Foundation.