"Advocates of bureaucratic and professional teacher accountability have been battling each other for decades in a war that has barely been acknowledged," write Arthur E. Wise and Michael D. Usdan. Teachers' organizations and others who favor advancing the teaching profession have promoted professional accountability mechanisms, such as the accreditation of teacher preparation institutions and upgraded requirements for licensure. In the meantime, the current education reform movement has promoted test-based teacher accountability that treats teachers as bureaucratic employees who must be micromanaged. The authors explore the history of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers as they have attempted to balance their roles as professional associations and unions protecting teachers' jobs. Without the leadership of teachers' organizations, they write, test-based accountability systems will dominate and continue to narrow the curriculum. Yet advocates of teacher professionalism must also recognize that some form of test-based accountability is inescapable. The future of teachers and their organizations may well depend on their ability to synthesize both types of accountability.