This case represents an effort to connect academic learning with educational reform in real time. It describes a district initiative to meaningfully engage a skeptical community and the subsequent attempts of university-based researchers to provide further entry points into the perspectives and concerns of educational partners. What is compelling about the ensuing case is its relevancy to current graduate students in educational leadership and policy studies, many of whom are still grappling with distinctions between theory and practice, and their evolving role(s) in improving schools at the local and national levels. Education discourses continue to make evident the tensions between academic knowledge and the priorities of field practitioners. Consequently, this anonymous case provides an opportunity to consider how one (e.g., graduate student, university-based teacher/researcher) might negotiate potentially conflicting demands and respond to the most immediate needs of the surrounding community. This case follows university-based staff, Johnathon Greene, and student researchers, Nia Williams and Micah Robinson, as they are called upon by a newly appointed superintendent, Dr. Elaine Shull, to help facilitate the process of "listening" to and understanding the needs of the College Park Public School community. How might this type of collaboration create new opportunities for learning, professional development, and strategic action?