Among the assumed benefits of cooperative ventures between universities and school systems is that the increased knowledge flow between the institutions should result in more relevant university programs and more theoretically and conceptually grounded decisions in the school system. However, the St. Louis (Missouri) area lacks a formal relationship of this sort. Based on participant observation in several staff development efforts involving the school district and area teacher education institutions, a model of interorganizational relations is used for analyzing school and university cooperation. Differences between universities and school systems in environment, time orientation, stratification, and complexity are explained as reasons why formal interorganizational relationships are unlikely. What has become institutionalized is an informal, ad hoc, and personalized way of transfering knowledge from one organization to the other. Individuals performing staff development consulting for the St. Louis schools view themselves as translators of research and synthesizers of the literature. The relative distance between universities and schools is seen as advantageous in sifting fads from substantial findings, and in keeping schools independent. A 15-item bibliography is appended. (MLF)