Mike Hanson is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is the former superintendent of the third largest urban school district in California, and co-founder and inaugural president of CORE, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve student achievement by fostering highly productive, meaningful collaboration and learning between California’s largest school districts. Mike currently serves on the Board of Valley Children’s Healthcare System where he chairs the compensation committee.
Prior to his 12-year tenure as superintendent, Mike served in many roles as a public educator in both New York and California, including deputy superintendent, high school principal, social science teacher and coach.
His work has focused on teacher, school and district improvement through building capacity in others, systems knowledge, formalized collaborative relationships and improved governance. His work in continuous improvement focuses on issues of equity and access. Areas of demonstrated expertise are improved student achievement, improved behavior of students, increased diversity of high-quality human capital, and leadership development. His interests include strategic creation and use of data systems as well as supports for public school employees.
