Richard Halverson was recently appointed as the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education in the UW–Madison Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Halverson, who joined the UW–Madison faculty in 2001 as an assistant professor, has spent his career in higher education creating knowledge and resources for educators and school leaders to improve learning for all students. Halverson previously served as the School of Education’s associate dean for innovation, outreach, and partnerships (2018-21) and as director of the Wisconsin Collaborative Education Research Network (2013-21), where he launched the Grand Challenges initiative that brought together School, campus, and community partners to identify and address a range of critical problems across the arts, health, and education.
“Professor Halverson is a terrific leader, excellent teacher, and a highly regarded researcher who does first-rate and innovative work that helps school leaders and teachers create the kind of schools that all students deserve,” says School of Education Dean Diana Hess. “One of his most notable achievements within our School of Education was the leading of the Grand Challenges program that brought together faculty and staff from across our 10 departments to work together to develop new research and outreach projects.”
Halverson’s research considers how new technologies support learning for educators and students in and out of schools. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Halverson now leads a team of researchers from across the country in a seven-year, $8.1 million project supported by the Wallace Foundation. This work studies one of the most important education issues today: preparing leaders to create more equitable schools for students and communities.
“As a nation, we urgently need to prepare and support school leaders who can create conditions for teaching and learning that support social justice, achievement, and equity,” Halverson says of the Wallace Foundation’s Equity-Centered Pipeline initiative, which launched in the fall of 2021. “The Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education will provide resources to support this important work in developing the next generation of equity centered school leaders.”
The Wallace project invites eight large urban U.S. school districts to partner with community organizations, universities, and state education agencies in creating new principal preparation programs that prepare school leaders who can bring a district’s own vision of equity and student success to fruition.
The Wallace research builds on Halverson’s Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) project with UW–Madison Professor Carolyn Kelley. CALL was developed with a 2009 grant from the U.S. Department of Education and launched in 2014 as a suite of tools with the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services to support professional growth, leadership development, and improvement planning for K-12 schools. The Wallace Grant will allow Halverson and the team to develop, test, and implement a new version of CALL to assess and support equity-centered leadership (CALL-ECL).
“We believe the CALL-ECL project will provide an actionable roadmap for how all K-12 school leaders can create more equitable schools,” says Halverson. “The Wallace effort to redefine equity-centered leadership preparation has the potential to transform the field of education leadership.”
Halverson is a life-long educator. He worked as an Upward Bound tutor as an undergrad at Marquette University and served as a teacher and as a leader for nine years at a Chicago high school. He earned an MA in philosophy and a PhD in the learning sciences at Northwestern University. In addition to serving as a faculty member in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Analysis, he is also affiliated with the UW-Madison’s departments of Curriculum and Instruction, and Educational Psychology. He co-founded and co-directed the Games + Learning + Society Research Center in the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, and led the Data-Driven Instructional System and Personalized Learning in Practice research projects at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
During his time at UW–Madison, Halverson has published over 100 research articles and conference papers. His books include “Mapping Leadership: The Tasks That Matter in School Improvement,” in 2017 with Carolyn Kelley; and “Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America,” with Allan Collins. That work was published in 2009, with a second edition published in 2018, and Japanese translations in 2014 and 2020.
“I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and I have always aspired to be a faculty member at UW-Madison,” says Halverson. “Being named the recipient of the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair is the highest professional honor I can imagine. I am very grateful to the Kellner family for supporting this prestigious role and I have the greatest respect for my outstanding colleagues, John Diamond and Gloria Ladson-Billings, who have previously served in this role. I will work hard to honor the legacy of transformational work in urban school education and leadership they have established.”
The distinguished chair is being supported via a generous gift from UW–Madison alumni Mary and Ted Kellner. Mary earned her BS from the School of education in 1968, previously worked for the Mequon-Thiensville School District as a guidance counselor, and also previously served on the School of Education’s Board of Visitors. Ted, who received a bachelor’s degree from the School of Business in 1969, is the founder and former executive chairman of Fiduciary Management, Inc., and the founder of Fiduciary Real Estate Development. They both have been on numerous nonprofit boards and are involved with the Kelben Foundation, Inc., a Milwaukee-based foundation that donates to local organizations and awards scholarships to students graduating from the Milwaukee school system.