Riehl, Carolyn J. (cjr8)

• Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University

• M.A., New York University
• Teacher Certification, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.A., Valparaiso University (Indiana)
  

Carolyn Riehl is an Associate Professor Emerita of Sociology and Education Policy at Teachers College. She retired from her full-time appointment at TC at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. She is no longer accepting doctoral students or visiting research scholars, though she is still available for conversation, advising, and collaboration with students and colleagues. 

Background:

Throughout her career, Prof. Riehl has focused her teaching and research on leadership and organizational dynamics in education, policy and the management of instruction, and research design and methods.  Her scholarship reflects a broad concern for how practice, policy, theory, and research can inform each other to support both careful analysis and pragmatic innovation and reform in schools and school systems, especially in settings where students traditionally have been poorly served.  She situates her scholarship at the juncture between sociology of education, organizational and administrative studies, and policy.  The sociological perspective invites analysis of the dynamic relationships among individuals, social groups, organizations and institutions, and wider sociocultural contexts, with particular regard to issues of equity.  The administrative/organizational perspective addresses practical challenges in the design and administration of school programs and the interdependencies of organizational structure and culture, individual agency, and outcomes in schooling. The policy perspective focuses on how local, state, and federal policies influence practice at the school level and how they impact outcomes for students.

Prof. Riehl has been a high-school English teacher, and has held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  She co-chaired an American Educational Research Association task force whose work culminated in the book A New Agenda for Research in Educational Leadership.  She has also served as chair of the Ethics Committee for the American Educational Research Association. For several decades, she taught in education leadership programs, working with aspiring school principals and superintendents, many of whom now hold prominent positions across the country. In her most recent appointment at TC, she taught courses and advised students in the Sociology and Education Program and the Education Policy Program, within the Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis. 

Dr. Riehl has studied and written about inclusive school leadership and family involvement in schools and has conducted studies of elementary school faculty meetings and the processes of student admission and discharge in high school. Her funded research projects have included a field study of teachers’ instructional planning and use of student performance data in elementary schools (funded by the Spencer Foundation) and a study of civic collaborations for education reform, sometimes known as “collective impact” initiatives (funded by The Wallace Foundation). She also has written about research, including a comparison of research in medicine and education and discussions of how to make education research more relevant and interesting for practitioners.

Since 2005, Dr. Riehl has been a faculty mentor for the Cahn Distinguished Principals Fellowship, supporting year-long cohorts of school leaders as they engage in inquiry-based improvement projects in their schools. This program began in 2003 at Teachers College, serving New York City exemplary principals, and has now expanded to 12 school districts throughout the United States, from Boston to Los Angeles.

Riehl, C.J., Henig, J. R., Wolff, J. A., & Rebell, M. A. (2019). Building impact: A closer look at local cross-sector collaborations for education. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis. Available for download from The Wallace Foundation at https://wallacefoundation.org/report/building-impact-closer-look-local-cross-sector-collaborations-education-closer-look-local. 

Riehl, C. J. (2018). Taking stock of complementary research methods: The perpetual quest for good research methods for educational leadership and policy. In C. R. Lochmiller (Ed.), Complementary research methods for educational leadership and policy (pp. 359-381). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave.

Riehl, C. J., Earle, H., Nagarajan, P., Schwitzman, T. E., & Vernikoff, L. (2018). Following the path of greatest persistence: Sensemaking, data use, and the everyday practice of teaching. In Helenrose Fives and Nicole Barnes (Eds.), Teachers’ data use: Cases of promising practice (pp. 30-43). New York: Routledge.

Riehl, C. J., & Henig, J. R. (2018). All together now: The apparent resurgence of locally based cross-sector collaboration. In D. E. Mitchell, D. Shipps, & R. L. Crowson (Eds.), Shaping education policy: Power and process (2^nd ed.), (pgs. 269-287). New York: Routledge.

Riehl, C., & Lyon, M. A. (2017). Counting on context: Cross-sector collaborations for education and the legacy of James Coleman’s sociological vision. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 674(1), 262-280.

Henig, J. R., Riehl, C. J., Houston, D. M., Rebell, M. A., & Wolff, J. R. (2016). Collective impact and the new generation of cross-sector collaborations for education: A nationwide scan. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis. Available for download from The Wallace Foundation at https://wallacefoundation.org/report/collective-impact-and-new-generation-cross-sector-collaborations-education-nationwide-scan.

Henig, J. R., Riehl, C. J., Rebell, M. A., & Wolff, J. R. (2015). Putting collective impact in context: A review of the literature on local cross-sector collaboration to improve education. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University, Department of Education Policy and Social Analysis. Available for download from The Wallace Foundation at https://wallacefoundation.org/report/putting-collective-impact-context-review-literature-local-cross-sector-collaboration-improve.

Kliegman, R., & Riehl, C. (2012). Playing doctor with education: Considerations in using medical rounds as a model for instructional rounds.  Journal of School Leadership, 22(5), 922-952.

Riehl, C.  (2012).  Edging in: Locating a focus on school-family-community partnerships within the scholarship of educational leadership.  In S. Auerbach (Ed.), School leadership for authentic family and community partnerships: Research perspectives for transforming practice (pgs. 10-28).  New York: Routledge.

Cooper, C. W., Riehl, C. J., & Hasan, L.  (2010).  Leading and learning with diverse families in schools: Critical epistemology amid communities of practice.  Journal of School Leadership, 20(6), 758-788.

Riehl, C.  (2007).  Research on educational leadership: Knowledge we need for the world we live in.  In F. W. English and G. C. Furman (Eds.), Research and educational leadership: Navigating the new National Research Council guidelines (pgs. 133-168).  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Riehl, C.  (2006, June-July).  Feeling better: A comparison of medical research and education research.  Educational Researcher, 35(5), 24-29.

Riehl, C.  (2005).  Educational leadership in policy contexts that strive for equity.  In N. Bascia, A. Cumming, A. Datnow, K. Leithwood, and D. Livingstone (Eds.), International Handbook of Educational Policy.  Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Publishers.

Riehl, C.  (2001).  Bridges to the future: The contributions of qualitative research to the sociology of education.  Sociology of Education, 74(Extra Issue), 115-134.

Riehl, C. J.  (2000).  The principal's role in creating inclusive schools for diverse students: A review of normative, empirical, and critical literature on the practice of educational administration.  Review of Educational Research, 70(1), 55-81.

Riehl, C., Pallas, A. M., & Natriello, G.  (1999).  Rites and wrongs: Institutional explanations for the student course scheduling process in urban high schools.  American Journal of Education, 107(2), 116-154..

Riehl, C.  (1998).  We gather together: Work, discourse, and constitutive social action in elementary school faculty meetings.  Educational Administration Quarterly, 34(1), 91-125.

Riehl, C., & Byrd, M.A.  (1997).  Gender differences among new recruits to school administration: Cautionary footnotes to an optimistic tale.  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 19(1), 45-64.

Riehl, C., & Sipple, J.W.  (1996).  Making the most of time and talent: The impact of secondary school organizational climates and teaching task environments on teacher commitment.  American Educational Research Journal, 33(4), 873-901.