Paul Koehler

Overview

Paul H. Koehler has broad experience in education policy and as a practitioner. His policy expertise was developed over years of service to state education chiefs and to governors, all during his tenure in Arizona. He also served as a school district assistant superintendent and superintendent for 14 years. During his years of service at WestEd, Koehler has led WestEd’s Policy Center and served as Director of WestEd’s Comprehensive Center, providing policy guidance and technical assistance for the states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah and the Bureau of Indian Education.

As Director of the Policy Center at WestEd, Koehler oversaw a team of professionals who provided education information and analysis to policymakers in the Western region (Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah). In his role leading the federally funded Comprehensive Center, Koehler worked closely with state education leaders and other policymakers in the western United States to provide technical assistance on a range of state needs, including systems of compliance for federal programs, the development of executive leadership programs for state leaders, and studies of best fiscal practices.

Koehler served as Arizona’s Associate Superintendent for Education Services for 7 years, working with the elected State School Superintendent overseeing all federal programs, assessment services and research programs at the Arizona Department of Education. He also worked with the state legislature on education bills and served as Arizona’s federal legislative liaison.

Koehler served as Superintendent of the Peoria Unified School District for 5 years, which is the fourth largest school district in Arizona and served 34,000 students at the time. In 2002, he was elected by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to be her Education Advisor. In this role, Koehler served on the governor’s staff, providing education advice and policy guidance. He also served three other Arizona governors as an informal advisor on education policy.

Education

• PhD in education policy, Arizona State University
• MS in elementary education, Brooklyn College
• BS in business management, C.W. Post College of Long Island University

Select Publications

Layland, A., Koehler, P., & Simpson, J.,(2020). After action review guide. National Comprehensive Center at Westat.

Koehler, P. (1995). Arizona’s educational reform: Creating and capitalizing on the conditions for policy development and implementation. In M. Kane and R. Mitchell (Eds.), Implementing performance assessment: Promises, problems and challenges. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Honors and Awards

Koehler was named to The Executive Education 100, honored by that publication in 1988 as one of the top 100 school executives in the United States. In 1999, he was named Arizona Superintendent of the Year by the Arizona School Administrators Association. Koehler was also a member of the Phoenix Education Commission and a member of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, appointed by the governor in 1999. He also received the American Institute of Architects Educator Award in 1999 for the innovative process and design of a Challenger Learning Center (a science center teaching students the importance of space flight).