After two decades teaching elementary aged children, Janet Erskine states that she has grown increasingly concerned with the use of high-stakes tests to determine how well students, teachers, and schools are performing. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates took effect in 2002, requiring the results on some standardized assessments be used to determine whether or not schools remain open. This was an attempt by policy makers to reform educational practices through teacher accountability with the use of one-time, high-stakes tests (Ravitch, 2010). The vision was to ensure that children considered at risk of not performing as well as their more socioeconomically advantaged peers would have better access to instructional interventions. Low scoring schools must demonstrate improvement. If scores remain low, school doors are closed and teachers can be fired. Many schools are now trying ways to find relief from NCLB mandates in exchange for efforts to close the achievement gap (ESEA Possibilities, 2013). Most public schools are not, however, finding ways to stop high-stakes tests from dictating curriculum. Erskine argues that this testing culture harms most the very students it purports to help (Au, 2007; Neill, 2009; Ravitch, 2010). She writes that high-stakes testing impacts the most vulnerable youth--especially minorities and children from poverty--by limiting choices and narrowing curricula to only tested items in order to pass tests (Au, 2007; Ravitch 2010). Erskine writes that she also believes that it changes how teachers teach.