GW Education Leadership Fellows Use Data to Drive Success in D.C. Schools
Dr. Rebecca Thessin
Dr. Rebecca Thessin
Associate Professor, Educational Administration
School: Graduate School of Education and Human Development
Department: Educational Leadership
Contact:
Email:
Dr. Rebecca Thessin
Office Phone:
(202) 994-1342
Rebecca A. Thessin is an Associate Professor of Educational Administration at the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She is currently serving as the Principal Investigator for GW on the Wallace Foundation’s Equity Centered Principal Initiative, through which she is facilitating GW’s Educational Leadership and Administration program partnership to prepare equity-centered leaders with the DC Public Schools. She recently completed research projects funded by AERA and the Spencer and Wallace Foundations, which focused on central office’s support of principals’ leadership of improvement and on the learning development experiences of assistant principals. Her work appears in both peer-reviewed and practitioner journals, including Leadership and Policy in Schools, Journal of Research on Leadership Education, Journal of School Leadership, Journal of Educational Administration, Planning and Changing, and Kappan Magazine, among others.
At GW, Dr. Thessin serves as the instructor for numerous courses in the Educational Leadership and Administration program, including Advanced Equity-Centered Instructional Leadership for School Improvement, Instructional Leadership for School Improvement, and Leading Evidence-Based Action Research for School Improvement. Prior to her current position, she was most recently the Chief School Improvement Officer for the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools, and she had served as the Associate Superintendent for Professional Development and School Support for this same district. She previously was the Director of School Improvement and Professional Development in the Stamford, CT Public Schools, and she began her career in education as a high school teacher.
Dr. Thessin holds a doctorate in the Urban Superintendency from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), two Master’s degrees from HGSE and a bachelor’s degree in History and Teacher Preparation from Yale University.
Ed.D., Harvard University
Ed.M., Harvard University
B.A., Yale University
- K-12 central office leadership (principal supervisors)
- Collaboration between central office and principals
- Leadership of school improvement
- Principal professional learning
- Urban schooling
- Assistant principal learning and development
- Preparation of aspiring school administrators
Thessin, R. A., Tekleselassie, A. A., Trimmer, L. B., Shepard, S. D., & Clayton, J. K. (2024). Leveraging a Candidate Assessment System to Develop an Equity-Centered School Leadership Pipeline Through a University–District Partnership. Education Sciences, 14(12), 1408. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14121408
Stosich, E., Thessin, R. A., & Meyers, C. (2024). Learning together to lead together: Designing professional learning to strength principal and district leadership for school improvement. American Journal of Education, 130(2). https://doi.org/10.1086/728266
Thessin, R. A., & Bostic, B. (2023). Building Capacity to Lead Instructional Improvement in a Title I Middle School. In E. Anderson & S. Hayes (Eds.), Continuous Improvement: A Leadership Practice for School Improvement. Information Age Publishing.
Thessin, R. A. & Reyes, C. (2022). Leading in urban contexts: How principal supervisors coach principals to lead improvement. In Q. Ling & K. Leithwood (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education. Elsevier.
Meyers, C., Thessin, R. A., & Stosich, E. (2022). An exploration of how district leaders organize to support underperforming schools in mid-sized districts. Educational Management Administration and Leadership.
Thessin, R. A. (2021). Engaging in joint work with principals: How principal supervisors’ joint facilitation of teams contributes to principals’ practice development. Leadership and Policy in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.1939389
Thessin, R. A. (2021). The principal’s role in planning essential supports for school-based professional learning communities. Educational Planning, 28(2), 7-26. https://isep.info/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ReducedSize.Journal.Volume28.2.pdf
Jamison, K., Clayton, J., & Thessin, R. A. (2020). Utilizing the educational leadership mentoring framework to analyze intern and mentor dynamics during the administrative internship experience: The mentor/intern relationship. Mentoring and Tutoring: Partners in Learning, 28(5), 578-601. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2020.1859328
Small, R., Thessin, R. A., & Dardick, W. (2020). Professional development for teachers of advanced placement courses. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 6(3), 267-280. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-02-2020-0007
Thessin, R. A., Shirrell, M., & Richardson, T. (2020). How do principal supervisors interact with leadership teams in high needs schools? Planning and Changing, 49(3/4), 173–201.
Thessin, R. A. (2020, December). Coaching and collaborating for instructional leadership. School Administrator, 30-33.
Thessin, R. A. & Louis, K. S. (2020, April). The principal’s role has changed. Is professional learning keeping up? The Learning Professional, 41(2), 40-46. https://learningforward.org/journal/beyond-the-basics/the-principals-role-has-changed
Thessin, R.A., Clayton, J., & Richardson, T. (2019). An exploration of a new superintendent’s transition team as a facilitator of organizational socialization of senior district administrators. International Journal of Leadership in Education, DOI: 10.1080/13603124.2019.1673904
Thessin, R.A. & Seashore Louis, K. (2019, August). Preparing effective principal supervisors. Kappan Magazine, 101(1), p. 48. https://kappanonline.org/role-of-principal-supervisor-thessin-louis/
Thessin, R.A. & Seashore Louis, K. (2019). The role of districts and other agencies in supporting school leaders’ instructional leadership. Journal of Educational Administration 57(5), 434-444.
Thessin, R.A. (2019). Establishing productive principal/principal supervisor partnerships for instructional leadership. Journal of Educational Administration 57(5), 463-483.
Thessin, R.A., Clayton, J.K., and Jamison, K. (2018). Profiles of the administrative internship: The mentor/intern partnership in facilitating leadership experiences. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 1-28.
Thessin, R. A., Scully-Russ, E., Hildreth, J., and *Lieberman, D. (2018). Key features to inform student outcomes: Learning from a high school healthcare education program. International Journal of Educational Reform 27(2).
Thessin, R. A., Scully-Russ, E., & Lieberman, D. (2017). Critical success factors in a high school healthcare education program. Journal of Career and Technical Education, 32(1), 51-72.
Thessin, R. A., & Clayton, J. (2017, January). Metro Nashville Public Schools transition team report. Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Jones, C. M., & Thessin, R. A. (2017). Sustaining continuous improvement through professional learning communities in a secondary school. Journal of School Leadership, 27(2), 214-241.
Clayton, J., & Thessin, R. A. (2017). Voices of educational administration internship mentors. Mentoring and Tutoring: Partners in Learning, 25(3), 291-308. doi:10.1080/13611267.2017.1364836
Allen, J. G., & Thessin, R. A. (2017). The extent to which the school leader makes efforts to close black male achievement gaps that promote reconciliation of value differences within the school organization. Journal of Ethical Educational Leadership, 4(7), 1-37.
Clayton, J., & Thessin, R. A. (2016). Learning from graduates and interns: Examining graduate and student experiences in the education administration internship. Education Leadership Review, 17(1), 17-42.
Jones, C. M., & Thessin, R. A. (2015). A review of the literature related to the change process schools undergo to sustain PLCs. Planning and Changing, 46(1/2), 193-211.
Thessin, R. A. (2015). Learning from one urban district: Planning to provide essential supports for teachers’ work in professional learning communities. Educational Planning, 22(1), 15-27.
Thessin, R. A. (2015). The need to use evidence in school-based K-12 improvement efforts. Kappan Magazine.
Jones, C. M., Thessin, R. A., & Clayton, J. (2014) The culture of one school sustaining the work of continuous improvement through professional learning communities. Journal of Ethical Educational Leadership, 1(10).
Baxter, V., Thessin, R. A., & Clayton, J. (2014). Communitarian leadership practice acquisition in educational leadership preparation. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(2). 10-27. Retrieved from https://www.ncpeapublications.org/index.php/volume-9-number-2-fall-2014
Thessin, R. A., & Clayton, J. (2013). Perspectives of school leaders on the administrative internship. Journal of Educational Administration, 51 (6), 790-811.
Thessin, R. A., & Starr, J. P. (2013). The district’s role in leading improvement: Professional learning communities as the starting point. In K. Hewitt, C. Childers-McKee, E. Hodge, & R. Schuhler (Eds.), Postcards from the schoolhouse: Practitioner scholars examine contemporary issues in instructional leadership. Ypsilanti, Michigan: NCPEA Publications.
Thessin, R. A. (2012, March). Next Steps in DC education evaluation and research (Working paper no. 2.1). Washington, D. C.: The George Washington University.
Thessin, R. A. (2011). Teaching notes and appendices. In L. Boozer, L. Kelley, R. Peterkin, & D. Jewell-Sherman (Eds.), Every child, every classroom, every day: Notable superintendents and researchers tackle the critical issues facing our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Thessin, R. A., Ed. (2011, Sept.). Transition team report. Rockville, MD: The Montgomery County Public Schools.
Thessin, R. A., & Starr, J. P. (2011, March). Supporting the growth of effective professional learning communities districtwide. Kappan Magazine.
Thessin, R. A. (2007). Building assessment literacy: Newton North High School gets smart about data. In K. P. Boudett, & J. L. Steele (Eds.), Data wise in action: Stories of schools using data to improve teaching and learning (pp. 29-50). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
- October 2023 - Dr. Rebecca Thessin, along with co-authors Dr. Elizabeth Stosich (Fordham University) and Dr. Coby Meyers (UVA), will publish an article titled, "Learning Together to Lead Together: Designing Professional Learning to Strengthen Principal and District Leadership for School Improvement," in the next issue of American Journal of Education.
- September 2023 - Dr. Rebecca Thessin wrote a chapter entitled, “Building Capacity to Lead Instructional Improvement in a Title I Middle School,” with her mentee Briana Bostic, who recently completed her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. The chapter is being published in the book Continuous Improvement - A Leadership Process for School Improvement.
- June 2020 - Dr. Rebecca Thessin has been awarded a $5000 AERA Education Research Service Project Award to partner with the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) on a project entitled, “Exploring Principal Learning, Growth and Support in ACPS.” The aim of the project is to produce a case study to include both interim and final reports for ACPS on principals’ experiences as they engage in new coaching and learning opportunities focused on their roles as instructional leaders through the 2020-2021 school year.
