I was leading curriculum and instruction for our school district when the accountability war started. Like many wars, it began with adult politics and ended with children being hurt. At first, my colleagues and I naively believed that the skirmishes over national standards and standardized testing would not change our work much. We had always designed learning experiences linked to academic standards. We had always been accountable for students’ learning. The movement for high stakes accountability would not impact how teachers designed learning. 

We realized soon enough that we were wrong.