When the Covid-19 pandemic forced US schools to shutter and teach remotely in March 2020, several states suspended external measures intended to hold educators accountable for student learning. Some scholars, including ourselves, welcomed this moratorium, having long questioned whether external measures could genuinely advance student performance (Francois & Weiner, 2020). Though external accountability proponents believe standardized tests and formal teacher evaluations motivate teachers to advance student learning (see Lee & Reeves, 2012 for a review), others argue that deficitoriented discourse about urban schools1 fueled an accountability era that has sabotaged equitable outcomes (Au, 2016; Darling-Hammond, 2007; Horn, 2018). We heard deficit-oriented thinking in talk of the “learning loss” urban school students experienced during remote and hybrid learning (Gabriel, 2020). And we continue to hear it now that students have returned to school amid expectations to frequently administer high-stakes tests to monitor academic progress.