This paper describes a unique collaboration between the College of Education (COE) and the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach (CAEO) at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Here we describe our efforts to improve student science performance in traditionally underachieving urban middle schools by embracing our state's highly qualified teacher requirements implemented to gain compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The focus of our collaborative intervention is improving the content and pedagogical content knowledge of a group of existing teachers by fostering a professional learning community among teachers, scaffolding technology within a new master's degree program, and working to build a partnership to provide the necessary technology infrastructure. This paper outlines our intervention from both a practical and theoretical perspective.