Charlotte McCormack

Charlotte McCormack serves as a key procurement lead within the Institute of Education Sciences, supporting the agency’s mission to advance evidence-based education policy through rigorous research and evaluation. She manages the acquisition lifecycle for scientific and analytical services critical to federal education program assessments, including large-scale longitudinal studies, statistical modeling, and data system development. Her portfolio primarily encompasses research and development contracts aligned with Title I, Perkins V Career Technical Education, and equity-focused interventions, ensuring that federal investments are grounded in methodologically sound, peer-reviewed evidence. McCormack’s work directly enables the Institute to fulfill its statutory mandate to produce actionable, nonpartisan findings for policymakers and practitioners. Her contractor relationships center on academic research institutions, independent evaluation firms, and specialized data analytics providers with demonstrated expertise in social science methodologies. She consistently engages vendors capable of delivering mixed-methods evaluations, causal impact analyses, and complex data integration across state and federal education datasets. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, McCormack prioritizes partners with proven capacity in randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs, and longitudinal data management—often collaborating with entities holding advanced methodological certifications and federal research experience. McCormack’s contracting activity reflects a strong preference for open competition, with 100% of acquisitions issued under non-set-aside authorities. This approach underscores her commitment to selecting the most technically qualified providers, regardless of socioeconomic status, while maintaining compliance with federal procurement integrity standards. Although small business set-asides are not currently utilized, she ensures all solicitations are structured to permit equitable access and transparent evaluation criteria. Her primary procurement focus is NAICS 541720—Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities—reflecting deep expertise in securing high-quality social science research services. She procures services including program evaluation, survey design, data cleaning and analysis, policy impact modeling, and dissemination of research findings to diverse educational stakeholders. Her domain knowledge spans education equity, school improvement models, and federal grant program effectiveness, making her a strategic conduit between scientific rigor and public policy implementation.