A high school English department collaboratively addressed the issue of college-readiness in writing while utilizing a focused four-phase leadership model to guide their efforts. Although this discussion highlights the strategic use of writing rubrics, it is the intention to share the benefits of using the four phases of collaborative teacher leadership model with a clear path that strategically uncovers instructional problems, identifies solutions, and analyzes data within a sustainable process. This discussion illustrates how the leadership model guided the department in identifying core causes of students' struggles with academic writing and solutions of strategically using writing rubrics to guide students to higher levels of mastery.