A group of public education institutions throughout the Salinas Valley came together in 2016 to help more youth in the valley prepare for and succeed in college. In this brief, we draw from interviews with faculty, staff, and administrators, as well as with student focus groups, in order to answer the following question for those interested in strengthening or developing a cross-system education partnership in their communities: "How has a relatively young education partnership worked across systems to improve college readiness for broad populations of students?" [The collaborations in Long Beach and the Salinas Valley were implemented through Bridging the Gap (BtG), an initiative funded by The James Irvine Foundation. For a summary on the Bridging the Gap series, see ED597814. For other papers in this series, see "Bridging the Gaps through Cross-System Education Partnerships: Principles of Practice from Long Beach and the Salinas Valley" (ED597812) and "Bridging the Gaps for Students in Long Beach: Cross-System Efforts to Institutionalize Dual Enrollment" (ED597810).]