The Fresno-Long Beach Learning Partnership is a collaboration that aims to improve student outcomes, accelerate achievement for all students, and close achievement gaps by capitalizing on shared systemic capacity-building across two high-need districts. The Partnership is a joint effort of the third- and fourth-largest districts in California to pursue common goals, measure student outcomes, share professional knowledge, learn from each other, and support each other's progress. This brief, the first in a series to document this unique cross-district collaboration, describes the initiation and early stages of the Partnership, and suggests that the processes for organizational learning the Partnership has created may lead to sustained district improvement over time. The Partnership might thus serve as a model for leaders in other districts who are similarly committed to achieving common goals and who are willing to identify and share the leadership practices most likely to foster student achievement. This brief is based upon interviews the authors conducted with leaders from both districts who have been directly involved in the Partnership. The authors interviewed district superintendents, leaders tasked with management of the Partnership itself, and district administrators leading each of the three strands of work. (Contains 2 tables and 5 endnotes.) [For the second part of this series, "Building Capacity for Accelerated Reform: The Fresno-Long Beach Learning Partnership as a Leadership Strategy. Special Series on the Fresno-Long Beach Learning Partnership," see ED526857.]