This article presents three cases of school districts/consortia in a southeastern state, where standardized measures focused on teacher/child interactions rather than student outcomes were implemented to guide decision-making. These three districts/consortia were funded annually for three years to implement innovative professional development initiatives for publicly funded 4K, focusing on social and emotional development, language and literacy, and overall classroom quality. Individual outcomes are presented along with commonalities across all three cases. A discussion of how standardized measures focused less on outcomes and more on interactions can support classroom instruction and management and improve dispositions towards assessment.