What makes a successful student teaching experience? The purpose of this 18-month long project was to improve social science educator preparation through embedding skills and practices of teaching with primary sources into teacher preparation coursework associated clinical experiences. This project involved professional development opportunities for school-based mentor teachers and prospective social studies teachers in our teacher preparation program. Concurrently, we sought to examine a variety of factors that may impact the relationships between partnering schools and universities, as well as mentors and pre-service teachers. Participants in this study were pre-service secondary social studies teachers from a large Research-1 university in the Southeast United States, as well as their corresponding mentor teachers. Grounded in historical thinking, teaching with primary sources, and the C3 framework, the researchers in this study employed a qualitative case study design to answer the research questions. Findings suggest that explicit alignment between university coursework and clinical experiences has promising impact, but the relationship between mentor and pre-service teacher remains critical to the implementation of high impact strategies.