This study examines the value of a professional collaborative partnership between college faculty and middle school teachers in improving students' literacy skills and teachers' instructional practice. Three college faculty and two middle school teachers engaged in a collaborative effort to design and implement evidence-based strategies to promote student achievement. In addition, faculty provided on-going systematic embedded professional development so that the instructional interventions were implemented with integrity. Pretest and posttest reading comprehension results that were collected during the study, showed an increase in students' literacy skills. Teachers also reported through a questionnaire that the partnership with faculty prepared them to effectively implement evidence-based strategies and strengthened their own teaching