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To identify the attitudes and traits of teachers with an at‐risk student population in a multi‐cultural urban high school.

A research team consisting of doctoral students and their faculty advisor used an appreciative inquiry model to identify attitudes and traits of teachers who supported effective teaching in an urban high school with a high at‐risk student population.

The research team's findings indicate that those perceived as effective teachers were culturally responsive, sought small successes, encouraged students, flexible, and caring. They also formed meaningful relationships with students, had caring attitudes, and viewed themselves as difference‐makers. The research team also found a number of non‐supportive teacher attitudes and traits: blaming, racial attitudes, frustration leading to inflexibility, co‐dependency leading to encouraging the neediness of students, and lack of respect for the contributions made by the surrounding community and parents.

Teachers, administrators, and counselors agreed that forming relationships and caring for students were at the core of the attitudes and traits of effective teaching. Moreover, teachers with effective attitudes and traits were seen as having the ability to integrate into the school and surrounding community's culture to encourage students to succeed in school.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ecology of collaboration between school and university partners using an appreciative inquiry theoretical perspective and to demonstrate how it enhances the social capital in school and university partnerships.

A case study of a partnership of an inner‐city high school and university doctoral action research was explored in the frameworks of mutuality, social capital, and appreciative inquiry. The theoretical perspective of appreciative inquiry served as the basis for the mutuality between administrators and faculty in the inner‐city high school and the doctoral action research team.

Findings suggest that approaching school‐university partnerships through an appreciative inquiry theoretical perspective creates an environment for building trust, sharing knowledge, and increasing bridging capital, thus benefiting both the school and university.

The action research team formed a partnership with teachers and administrators. The action research was transformed by the partnership and reports showed substantial progress in student achievement scores in mathematics and science. Hopefully, some of that achievement can be attributed to the research and the paper on which it is based.