The pandemic put both a microscope and a wide-angle lens on America's education systems. Under the microscope, parents had a window into individual classrooms as never before, as their children struggled to learn through laptops. Many didn't like what they observed. Through the wide angled lens, the country was jolted by evidence that school districts everywhere were failing to adapt. For large school districts, it is painfully obvious that top-heavy central administrations that push a standardized, one-size fits all school experiences are antiquated. Everyone -- except perhaps overstaffed central bureaucracies and the teachers unions -- would benefit from more decentralized and more accountable school systems. One auspicious approach is the partnership model. The model in a nutshell: a school district partners with a qualified nonprofit to operate a school or a subset of its schools, usually using a performance contract to define the terms of the relationship. This report tells the story of one promising effort: the Leadership Academy Network (LAN) in Fort Worth, Texas. LAN is a partnership between the Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) and Texas Wesleyan University (TXWES). This report covers how and why the FWISD went the partnership route, how the LAN got up and running, how it works, and how it is working. It also takes the reader inside LAN's schools, which will hopefully inspire pragmatic thinkers to encourage more places to consider its data-driven instructional model.