Building Equity-Focused School Leadership: Wisconsin’s Role in a National Partnership

October 16, 2025   |   By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research & Scholarship

How can universities and school districts work together to prepare school leaders who champion equity in education?

A recent study published in the Journal of Professional Capital and Community explores this question through the lens of the Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative—a six-year, $102 million nationwide effort funded by The Wallace Foundation.

What is it?
Launched in 2021, the Wallace initiative brings together eight large urban school districts across the U.S. with universities, state agencies, and community organizations. The goal: to strengthen equity-centered leadership by building aligned leader pathways that prepare and support school leaders to meet their districts’ equity-focused priorities.

Wisconsin’s leadership
Researchers from UW–Madison played a central role in this study. WCER-based researchers and faculty affiliates, including Daniella Molle, Christopher Saldaña, Aziz Awaludin, Xinyu Guan, and Richard Halverson, contributed to the data collection and analysis, alongside colleagues from other institutions. Their work highlights how intentional partnerships can reshape leadership pathways to better assist historically underserved students.

Key findings include:

• Partnerships take time. Strong district–university relationships took about two years to emerge.
• Universities became central. While the number of university partners remained steady, their influence and integration within district teams grew significantly.
• Shared goals matter. Collaboration was driven by a mutual commitment to equity and supported by both mandated activities and voluntary engagement.
• Universities and districts play different roles in the network. While the districts greatly expanded the networks internal to their organizations, universities played a key role as brokers, connecting people across organizations.
• Networks expanded. Over time, the Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative network became more cohesive, diverse, and interconnected—especially around university partners.

Why It Matters

This research shows that when universities and districts work together intentionally, they can:

• Prepare more diverse and equity-minded school leaders
• Improve leadership preparation programs
• Build sustainable structures for collaboration

Wisconsin’s Impact

• UW–Madison’s involvement in the initiative not only advanced national research but also positioned Wisconsin as a leader in equity-centered educational reform. The study’s framework—rooted in Bronfenbrenner’s theory—helped researchers understand how these partnerships evolve within broader systems, including funding agencies and community organizations.

• UW–Madison’s insights from the initiative contributed to the knowledge base on how intentional networks can promote alignment between university leaders’ preparation programs and district-specific equity needs and give rise to new, collaborative structures and processes that are mutually beneficial to both partners.