Since 1990, teacher recruitment and training organizations have emerged as a significant force in educational reform efforts. These organizations tend to operate outside of the public education bureaucracy; recruiting and training new teachers and raising operating budgets independently of the school districts that they serve. Many of these organizations have adopted an 'entrepreneurial' approach to education; courting private sector investment in public education, recruiting teachers and organizational staff from the private sector, and embracing methods and philosophies popular in the private sector. One example of these organizations' entrepreneurial approach to educational reform is accountability, namely integrating a standards-based approach into all facets of the organization. Why are these entrepreneurial organizations such passionate advocates of accountability systems? How do these organizations transmit their enthusiasm for entrepreneurism to their participants, ie. new teachers? To answer these questions, this paper draws on interviews with 40+ teachers recruited and trained by one of the largest, highest-profile of these emergent entrepreneurial educational organizations; Teach for America. I find three explanations for growing entrepreneurial zeal among many contemporary education organizations. First, staff and participants in entrepreneurial educational organizations view accountability systems as effective tools for measuring new teachers' efficacy. Second, entrepreneurial organizations view accountability systems as able to focus new teachers' idealism. Finally, these organizations laud accountability systems for measuring the existence of educational inequality and organizations' progress eradicating it. By explaining the positive views of accountability systems in entrepreneurial organizations, this paper offers an explanation for the growing influence of entrepreneurism in American public education. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]