In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) concluded that "literature reading is fading as a meaningful activity, especially among younger people." How can educators continue to teach students about the power of literary response when the priority is for them to achieve proficiency on standardized tests, whose scores can only be narrowly descriptive of students' literacy abilities? Although literary response may be a mainstay in English language arts instruction, schools continue to need it, perhaps more than ever, given an increased focus on standardized scores. In this article, the author illustrates how three eleventh graders practiced literary response to transcend their standardized test scores and to revise their academic literacy identities.