A simple act of motivation priming can significantly impact the validity of test results, which is crucial for institutional accountability. The progression of the studies discussed in this article illustrates a clear trajectory of building upon previous findings to refine and expand the understanding of motivation priming when gathering assessment data from students for institutional accountability reporting. Given these findings of these studies, the authors make two calls to assessment practitioners: 1) consider prompting students to give good effort on assessments used for institutional accountability; and 2) join them in extending a study of cheap motivation intervention.