Between 2001 and 2005, the state of Maine shifted the focus of its statewide high school improvement efforts to include an explicit focus on adolescent literacy. One trigger for that change in focus was a 5-school adolescent literacy initiative previously launched in a rural county under the federal Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory contract. This monograph describes the multi-party mobilization that led to the creation and implementation of the adolescent literacy project and explains the link between that modest rural effort and the change in state-level reform efforts. The project was designed and implemented at the intersection of what is known about adolescent literacy development, systemic educational reform, and rural education. The case study's basis in and ties to those literatures are noted. By the project's end, it had succeeded in being the longest, externally initiated, continual improvement effort in which any of the five target high schools had participated. In May 2005, all of the participating schools presented sustainability plans for continuing the work beyond the period of funding and all of the project partners had explicitly identified adolescent literacy as central to their institutional missions. Appended are: (1) Adolescent Literacy--Best Practices from Meltzer; and (2) The 15 core practices of Maine's Promising Futures High School Reform Framework.