Our goal in this article is to contribute to the discussion of how schools and universities can form practice-relevant, research-rich partnerships to address issues of student learning outcomes in high poverty, culturally and linguistically diverse school communities. The discussion focuses on three aspects of such partnership work. First, we consider the possibilities of school-university partnerships as change drivers in the broader context of global education policies that emphasise international and national standardised testing as a key performance indicator of student learning and teaching quality. Second, we aim to shift attention away from teachers as those bearing sole responsibility for school improvement, who, as recipients of professional learning, are expected to 'shape up'. Rather, we examine the generative knowledge work that is possible when researchers and teachers engage in design-based research grounded in a collaborative inquiry (co-inquiry) model of school improvement. We advocate that this model of collaborative learning for teaching, based on co-inquiry and design-based research interventions, can make a significant difference to student literacy outcomes. Finally, we discuss an example of one such partnership and describe its impact on the learning of teachers, students, and researchers.