This study examines educators' experiences of implementing research--practice partnership (RPP) in three schools in Finland's capital area. The data consisted of educator interviews (N = 12) and self-report questionnaire responses (N = 101). Teachers' experiences were traced by data-driven thematic analysis of the interviews and quantitative analysis of survey responses. The results indicate that RPP provided a successful strategy to contribute to school development aims as long as it was integrated coherently into schools' operations. Targeted time resources, teachers' developer roles, and joint work, such as involvement in boundary crossing activities, fostered successful implementation and achievement of the targeted development aims. However, within-school power dynamics appeared to be a hindering factor. The results indicated an unexpectedly strong segregation of teachers according to presence or absence of their developer role. The reached outcomes related to experienced school-specific organizational innovations and professional growth of those educators who engaged in boundary crossing activities.