Throughout much of the past quarter century, standards, testing, and accountability have composed the North Star of education reform. But over that time, the string of reform initiatives that failed to live up to their initial promise has effectively extinguished that guiding light. Now focus has turned to social and emotional learning (SEL). In a country as diverse as the US, any national reform initiative is going to encounter tensions with local realities, and SEL is no exception. This report takes stock of those pressures and--drawing on NCLB-era lessons--puts forth six concrete suggestions for advocates faced with navigating the tensions that emerge. In doing so, the author intends to contribute to advocates' efforts to help SEL achieve its significant promise. Key points of this report include the following: (1) Advocates for social and emotional learning (SEL) can learn from the challenges that No Child Left Behind faced in navigating tensions; (2) Accordingly, SEL advocates should view the popularity of their initiative with a grain of salt and proceed deliberately when encouraging local communities to reform their schools; and (3) Specifically, advocates should embrace SEL flexibility on how schools and districts formulate SEL programs, avoid enshrining SEL in federal or state policy, resist the urge to rate SEL's success based on test scores, and take pains to work with--and not around--parents and teachers.