Jessica Rigby
Assistant Professor of Education
Research Areas
Educational Leadership
Effective Schools & School Systems
Educational Policy
Scholar Snapshot
Professor Rigby uses lenses from organizational sociology to understand the role of school and district leaders in the implementation of policy, classroom instruction and improving teacher practice towards advancing equitable outcomes for historically marginalized communities. She has worked in schools as a teacher (middle and high school English and history), leader and researcher.
Her current project is Systems Leadership for Math Improvement (education.uw.edu/slmi), a Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project in collaboration with a local school district to improve elementary mathematics instruction through redesigning systems, tools and leadership development at the district-level.
Professor Rigby’s publications include “Principals’ Leadership Moves to Implement a Discipline-Specific Instructional Improvement Policy” in Leadership and Policy in Schools, “Learning Opportunities about Teaching Mathematics: A longitudinal case study of school leaders’ influence” in Teachers College Record and “View from the Field: The process of improving equitable systems leadership” in a special issue on principal supervision in the Journal of Education Administration.
She co-edited a special issue of the American Journal of Education exploring issues of structure and agency in education and she has authored reports for a number of organizations including Policy Analysis for California Education, Leadership Connection for Justice in Education, the San Francisco School Alliance and several school districts.
In Depth
Read more about Professor Rigby’s work with Puget Sound school districts in Research That Matters magazine.
Contact
206-616-5607