In the 2010s, teacher education witnessed the rise of accountability regimes. Studies examining efforts to introduce teacher preparation accountability focused predominantly on federal or state actors, leaving the involvement of intermediary organizations in the construction of these regimes largely underexplored. To address this gap, I analyze nonprofit and for-profit actors’ advocacy for teacher preparation accountability. Using the tools of anthropology of policy and social network analysis, I demonstrate that these actors’ success rests on their ability to work together as a flex net, or a collective that pursues a shared vision and pools together resources to accomplish a common agenda.

In the policy climate where various actors claim to have the solutions for the enduring challenges of teacher education, policy deliberations sideline certain voices. This introduction to the special issue explores policy contestations surrounding teacher education and highlights some of the perspectives overlooked by policy debates. It lays out new priorities for the teacher education community to ensure that the profession’s collective voice would be heard by policy-makers and by the public at large.

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