Formerly Dean of the Isabelle Farrington College of Education, Jim Carl now is Professor of Teacher Education at Sacred Heart University. Prior to his years at SHU he served on the faculty of education at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio and as chair of the Department of Curriculum and Foundations at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. Carl also has experience teaching social studies at a public high school in New Hampshire, and he also taught adolescents at a residential treatment center, also in New Hampshire.

He is most interested in the history and politics of urban education in the post-World War II era and the nineteenth and twentieth century origins of mass schooling in North American, European, and Asian contexts. His interest in urban education reform movements in the aftermath of Brown v. Board resulted in numerous publications on school vouchers, mayoral control, and parental choice; among them a book entitled Freedom of Choice: Vouchers in American Education (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011). More recently, he has developed an interest in the explosive growth of mass schooling and higher education in China.

In addition to his four children and their various interests, Carl enjoys cycling and soccer.