Sierra Vista Elementary School is a Title I school located in south central Phoenix that serves 418 K-8 students, 90 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and live in homes where the primary language is not English. One-third of the student population is made up of English-language learners. Hispanic students make up 78 percent of the population and black students make up 17 percent. In the fall of 2006, Sierra Vista was officially labeled as failing by the Arizona Department of Education for underperforming for three consecutive years according to the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS). That same year, Sierra Vista had not made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for three consecutive years. Meanwhile, the Arizona School Board was holding hearings initiated by the Arizona Department of Education to take over the entire district under the premise of educational mismanagement. In this article, the author describes how Sierra Vista earned big academic gains by focusing on aligning curriculum and instruction.