Public schools failing to meet accountability standards have been shut down, taken over by charter organizations, or undergone reconstitution. This article challenges deficit views of students as passive and complacent in a schooling context dictated by accountability sanctions. Drawing from counterpublic theory, it describes a case study that illustrates the emergence of a student counterpublic at an urban high school under the threat of reconstitution. Interviews with four former students who were at the center of this emergence demonstrate how they and their peers acted within a realm of non-deliberative power and created their own spaces for deliberation and collective action. The results offer an example of how students can be partners in shaping reform through democratic action rather than simply being objects of reform.