Developing a Collaborative Partnership Between a College of Education and an Elementary School: An overview of a six-year grant…

This introductory article will provide an overview of a state funded project to develop a collaborative partnership between the Western Washington University Elementary Education Department and an elementary school in a district with high levels of poverty and English learners. It will describe the history, the aims and goals, and the major results of the six-year project and provide readers with a context for the other articles that appear in this issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy. In the other articles, the authors, who also participated in the partnership, describe their personal involvement in particular aspects of the multi-faceted project and the initiatives that were collaboratively developed with the school faculty. A video interview with a state legislator provides a historical and political context for the legislation that funded the project. And, in another interview, the school district superintendent describes the impacts that a partnership with one school had on an entire district, now and into the future.