For too long teachers have been forced into a defensive posture, protecting their professionalism and their students' learning from the accountability hawks who know little about teaching and learning, the author asserts. In this article, the author details how Nebraska educators have turned the tables on accountability by placing utmost importance on how each accountability measure affects teaching and learning. He outlines ten characteristics of Nebraska's School-based Teacher-led Assessment Reporting System (STARS) accountability system, and explains how teachers can "put pressure on their states to do the right things rather than do things right." (Contains 26 endnotes.) This article produced by Phi Delta Kappa International, Bloomington, IN.]