Carrie Hahnel

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Carrie Hahnel
Senior Policy and Research Fellow,
Policy Analysis for California Education

Carrie Hahnel is senior associate partner for policy and evaluation at Bellwether and a senior policy and research fellow with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). Her research and policy expertise focus on school finance, school data, education accountability, and ways in which policies and systems can mitigate racial and socioeconomic inequities. She most recently served as senior director of policy and strategy with the Opportunity Institute and has also held positions as the deputy director for policy and research and interim co-executive director for The Education Trust–West and as research and evaluation director for the KIPP network of schools. She started her career in education as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and has also worked as an arts education advocate. She received her BA from Carleton College and her MEd from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

updated 2021

Publications by Carrie Hahnel
California is the fifth largest economy in the world and the wealthiest state in the nation. The Golden State is home to countless tech giants, an enormous entertainment industry, major agricultural regions, and many other successful industries.…
A Summary Brief
California and the rest of the country are enduring a pandemic-induced economic recession, and school and district leaders are bracing for the fallout. Funding for California schools had improved rapidly between 2013 and 2019, with districts…
What California’s Leaders Must Do Next to Advance Student Learning During COVID-19
On July 17th, 2020, Governor Newsom announced that all K–12 schools in California counties with rising COVID-19 infections would be required to teach remotely. Without a strong focus on improving the quality of remote education at scale, students…
Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), California’s thirteenth largest school district, faces a looming deficit and must make significant budget adjustments to avoid state intervention. This case study explores how the district reached…