The STEM.LD program was funded by a 2020 mid-phase Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant. It sought to improve student outcomes by strengthening professional learning for teachers and school leaders, expanding STEM curricular resources, and increasing student engagement in rigorous coursework and extracurricular opportunities. A randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the impact of the program on middle school student science and math achievement. There were challenges from the beginning, including recruitment and implementation challenges. The impact study did not yield significant results, but the project team and evaluators worked together to try to learn from the null results. This paper explores different factors that may have contributed to null and negative findings and how the research partnership collected data to inform future projects.