The reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) makes this a good time to consider whether and how current accountability serves the public interest and whether and how it can better do so. This report explores these issues in the context of the current literature on the effects of accountability in K-12 education. It considers the meaning of "public interest" and offers a model of how public interest may be served through accountability to benefit student learning. The report considers how well the model fits available evidence by examining whether and how accountability assessment influences students' learning opportunities and the relationship between accountability and learning. (Contains 1 figure.)