This paper explores how new accountability policies interact with culturally relevant teaching at the classroom level. When teachers are under the constraints of accountability and student testing policies, are they able to adopt and practice culturally relevant pedagogy in their classrooms? Previous research indicates that high-stakes accountability systems connected with standardized testing are viewed as having negative effects on teachers, the teaching profession, and curriculum and instruction. As a result, teachers have reported feelings of guilt, anxiety, shame, and alienation. Teachers' relationships with administrators have become more complicated, and students have demonstrated decreased levels of trust. Accountability systems have also led to more constraints on teachers use of time, leaving little or no time to fulfill students' emotional and personal needs, and leaving teachers feeling overwhelmed. Research also suggests that the standardized testing associated with accountability systems have led to the narrowing of the curriculum, teaching to the test, and increased instructional hours spent on test preparation. Accountability policies do not necessarily exclude the principles of culturally relevant pedagogy, but mandated standardized testing policies clearly create conditions that are harmful to culturally relevant pedagogy and its goals. This raises great concern for students of color. The surface-level incompatibility of these two reforms, however, does not mean the demise of culturally relevant pedagogy. Culturally aware teachers across the United States are probably fighting to find a balance between engaging students through culturally relevant practices and attending to accountability measures. (Contains 14 references.) (SLD)