Academic language has been referred to as a gatekeeper, something that stands in the way of academic success for native and nonnative speakers alike. In rural eastern North Carolina, many students do double the work because they speak nonstandard dialects, lack the background knowledge for school success, and thereby disengage from the classroom. In a yearlong series of workshops, the authors focused on coaching as a vehicle to improve academic language proficiency across the curriculum using the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, a research-based model for integrating language and content in the classroom. Some schools continue to implement the content, and others don't. Unsuccessful schools had uninvolved principals who booked the session, left for the day, and planned no follow-up activities. These experiences led them to create a program called Project CEO. Project CEO was a collaborative initiative between the authors and two schools, the only elementary school and middle school in Tyrrell County Public Schools, a small, rural eastern school district in North Carolina. This article discusses the three phases of the initiative.