The Journal of School & Society 4(1) 76–84 © Author(s) 2017 76 From an “Insider” to an “Outsider”: The Metamorphosis of an Educator Navigating School-University Partnerships in Urban Communities Mildred Boveda Florida International University School of Education and Human Development When we reflect upon an experience in- stead of just having it, we inevitably distinguish between our own attitude and the objects to- ward which we sustain the attitude… Such re- flection upon experience gives rise to a distinc- tion of what we experience (the experienced) and the experiencing—the how. John Dewey 1 Within the past three decades, urban school and district leaders have increasingly forged joint ventures with philanthropic groups, uni- versities, and other education consultants to turn disjointed collections of flagship and fail- ing schools into systems of high quality schools. 2 School boards have turned to military, 1 Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York, NY: Macmillan. 2 Coburn, C. Bae, S. & Turner, E. (2008). Authority, sta- tus, and the dynamics of insider-outsider partnerships at government, social and private sectors in search of executives to recruit to improve urban school systems. 3 As schools and district offices collaborate with agents from outside of P-12 institutions to bring instructional improvements to scale, ob- servers argue that these partnerships are tilted because the “insiders,” or practitioners, ulti- mately decide whether they will implement the ideas created by the partnerships. 4 The burden has traditionally fallen on the “outsiders” to warrant that their contributions are neither ig- nored nor dismissed. How can outside agents get the buy-in from practitioners to influence student outcomes? I contend that outsiders (e.g., representa- tives from Institutions of Higher Education) who during the earlier stages of the partnership the district level. Peabody Journal of Education, 83(3), 364- 399. Fullan, M., Rincón-Gallardo, S., & Hargreaves, A. (2015). Professional capital as accountability. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(15). 3 Childress, S., Elmore, R., Grossman, A., and S. Moore Johnson (Eds.). (2007). Managing School Districts for High Performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. Zavadsky, H. (2009). Bringing school reform to scale: Five award winning urban districts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ed- ucation Press. 4 Payne, C. (2008). So much reform, so little change: The persis- tence of failure in urban schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. The burden has traditionally fallen on the “outsiders” to warrant that their contribu- tions are neither ignored nor dismissed. How can outside agents get the buy-in from practitioners to influence student outcomes?