Although national trends of urban adolescent reading underachievement suggest that schools are unable to adequately support this population's reading development, some studies have demonstrated that urban schools can operate to raise student achievement, thereby disrupting national trends. In this study, the author investigates one such school that capitalized on instructional leadership, time and space, and teacher agency to both raise teacher capacity and youths' reading achievement. It appears that an interrelationship among these features were critical in creating change at the school. Findings from this study hold important implications for future investigations on literacy instruction in urban schools.