UW–Madison Study Shows How School Districts and Universities “Connected the Dots” to Build Equity-Focused School Leadership Across 21 States
May 1, 2026 | By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research and Scholarship
Rich Halverson, left, and Aziz Awaludin found strong university-school district partnerships were key to the network's success.
A new study from UW–Madison education researchers Aziz Awaludin and Richard Halverson offers a detailed, data‑driven look at how school districts and universities worked together to design principal preparation programs with equity at the center.
Published in the Journal of Educational Administration, the study, titled “Connecting the Dots: A Social Network Study of Inter-Organizational Partnerships for Designing Equity-Centered Principal Preparation Programs,” is based in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in the School of Education. It uses network analysis to trace how relationships formed, deepened, and changed across the Equity‑Centered Pipeline Initiative, a six-year, $102 million national effort launched in 2021 and funded by The Wallace Foundation.
UW–Madison is studying the initiative as part of a Halverson-led project known as the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning-Equity Centered Leadership (CALL/ECL).
The study followed more than 70 organizations across 21 states, including eight large urban school districts and 16 universities, as they collaborated to develop new principal pipelines to better assist historically underserved students. By analyzing three waves of network data collected in 2022 and 2023, the authors show how a loose collection of early partnerships gradually transformed into a more cohesive, interconnected system in which school districts increasingly took the lead.
The researchers saw the number of participants in districts and universities steadily increase, from 110 to 139 to 194. Connections between participants also rose dramatically: from 76 to 804.
Other members of the initiative network, while not the direct subject of this study, included technical assistance providers, state agencies and community organizations.
At each of the three testing points, participants were asked two questions: who they worked with to improve candidate access to their principal preparation program, and who they worked with to strengthen the emphasis on equity in their program.
“We chose this strategy to track the evolving structure of the network by capturing the dynamic nature of collaborations within and across district-university partnerships,” said Awaludin, a research associate earning a doctorate in the school’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. “This approach gave us a longitudinal view of how the network evolved across periods.”
Halverson, a professor in the same department, noted that universities and school districts were fundamental to the network’s development.
“The university-district partnerships were consistently strong, showing their foundational role in the network,” he said. “Over time, districts emerged as central brokers.”
The study also offers practical lessons for districts and universities seeking to redesign principal preparation programs:
- Strong partnerships: They take time to build.
- District leadership: It’s essential for grounding equity work in the local context.
- Universities’ role: They remain critical partners in program design and expertise.
- Cross-sector networks: They benefit from intentional structuring that supports collaboration.
Early in the initiative, universities and technical assistance providers were the most central actors in the network, the study found. They had the strongest connections and played the biggest role in shaping early program design.
But as work progressed, districts emerged as the key brokers — proving most responsible for connecting people, sharing information, and bridging organizational boundaries. Districts also became increasingly influential in shaping program direction, recruiting candidates, and ensuring alignment with local equity goals.
In addition, the partnership between districts and universities became more reciprocal — moving away from a model in which universities deliver preparation programs and toward one in which districts and universities co-construct them.
Overall, the study showed the network became:
- More cohesive: Network density rose, indicating a shift from isolated partnerships to a tightly connected system.
- More clustered: Tight-knit groups formed around each district partnership team.
- Less fragmented: Isolated participants became more integrated.
- More diverse: State agencies and community organizations became increasingly involved.
These changes suggest that the initiative succeeded in building the relational infrastructure needed for large‑scale, equity‑centered reform, the authors said. The principal preparation programs functioned as boundary-spanning objects— shared goals that unite diverse partners to create a common space for collaboration, they said.
About the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership Learning-Equity Centered Leadership (CALL-ECL)
CALL-ECL is studying urban school district efforts to prepare equity-centered school leaders. The project is documenting the development of principal development pipelines, tracing the growth of professional networks, and developing data tools to support the practices of equity-centered leaders in schools. Learn more at call-ecl.wcer.wisc.edu.
About the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER)
WCER at UW–Madison’s #1-ranked School of Education is one of the world’s oldest and most productive education research centers. WCER has supported researchers and scholars in developing, submitting, conducting and sharing grant-funded education research for over 60 years. See wcer.wisc.edu for additional information.
