Learning From Cross-University Collaboration and Research: A Greek Tragedy in Three Acts

Abstract

A multiyear collaboration engaging key educational partners set out to understand how it was that English-language learners attending public schools that had the potential to serve as centers of excellence came to demonstrate relatively strong levels of performance on New York City and New York State standardized tests. This article describes what professors with experience in bilingual- and English as a second language teacher education learned from this collaboration, as well as the problems and possibilities that present themselves when individuals from different institutional cultures and discourse communities study the teaching-learning process during 1 of the most chaotic periods of public education in the nation's largest school system. Key words: School-College-University collaboration, ELLs, public schools, elementary and secondary, teacher education, collaborative action research