As residents of the ivory tower, we know we cannot exist on our own. Without our partners in local school districts, we have no research and no real-world context. We also know that to establish a meaningful partnership with schools, all participants must perceive value and anticipate meaningful outcomes. What started out as an effort to help two schools achieve high levels of teacher implementation of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008) resulted in a deeper understanding of the true learning value of a sustained and committed partnership among university faculty, district personnel, and school-based educators. Our partnership began when, as faculty members at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., we facilitated a three-day summer workshop and developed a plan