As facilitator, the author noted some trepidation in the room as the eight secondary principals from Eugene (Oregon.) School District 4J quietly discussed questions that surfaced through their hopes and fears exercise. Could the practice of visiting classrooms together help them to better lead instruction in their buildings? Would this process stir up controversy with the teachers union? How did they feel about including teachers in a practice they did not yet understand? Could the time they spend together affect student learning, helping to close a nagging and persistent achievement gap? In a district with a strong, sometimes challenging union presence and a history of highly prized independent practice, there were significant implications to the decision at hand: Should they implement instructional rounds, and, if so, why? That was three years ago, and, although there was an inkling of the decision they were making through their reading of "Instructional Rounds" (City, Elmore, Fiarman, & Teitel, 2009), that meeting launched a collaborative investigation into the nature of learning with data as a powerful ally. As the Learning About Learning Network, eight principals, eight teachers, and two central office representatives met every few months to painstakingly gather data about the instructional core--the relationship of student and teacher in the presence of content. Their goal was to analyze and understand the learning process in a way that would increase their capacity to lead instructional improvement. Did they reach it? The author is not sure they have that answer yet, but network members say that what they learned transformed their practice. It turned their notion of data and how to use it upside down and has begun to shift a privatized culture into one that values collaborative practice. Even their time together as a network has transformed as they have pushed themselves toward more accountable practice.