The anticipated constraints imposed by the accountability process associated with standards-based reform on teachers\u27 practice suggest a tension between teachers\u27 desire for flexibility and the accountability mandates associated with reform initiatives. In particular, we posited that the teachers would negatively perceive the influence of standards-based reform on their professional autonomy, opportunities for creative expression, classroom effectiveness, and work environment. To collect our data, we used the extant literature as a guide and developed a 41-item instrument, with items nearly evenly distributed along four subscales representing our four areas of interest. We recruited a sample of 70 preservice and 169 in-service teachers as participants. Our results revealed negative perceptions of the influence of standards-based reform on autonomy, creativity, and work environment and significant correlations (p \u3c .01) for the composite scores for all four subscales. Our research failed to expose generational differences, but it did reveal significant differences in perceptions of effectiveness between preservice and in-service teachers (p \u3c .05). The implications and directions for future study are discussed
