The Research Alliance for New York City Schools is committed to conducting rigorous, non-partisan research studies on topics that matter to the city's public schools. One of the core functions of the Research Alliance is to conduct research in collaboration with other researchers at NYU, at other universities, and at other organizations across the city and country. Building diverse research teams enables authors to conduct the highest quality studies with multi-disciplinary experts that reflect the complexity of challenges in education. While independent of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), the Research Alliance also works with DOE to identify important questions for research and to provide valid and reliable evidence to help solve problems and build capacity in schools throughout NYC. Recently, the authors have begun collaborating with the Department on the evaluation of a district-wide led initiative designed to improve the college and career readiness for young men of color. This panel will highlight the opportunities and challenges of their partnership as well as the operational and political realities of working with the city's schools. By using this particular evaluation as an anchor, their research team and the project's director at the DOE will present their process for site selection and recruitment; data collection and analysis; as well as reporting and dissemination of results to inform the development of the initiative. (Contains 2 tables.)