For this study, 40 teachers at four admired public urban high schools participated in interviews about the responsibilities, goals, and challenges they face as they try to attend to students' needs in the midst of pressures from high stakes testing and high academic standards. Common themes from their responses included a deep and profound responsibility to the "kids" who enter their classrooms; ongoing efforts to negotiate the academic and personal goals they have for each student; frustration and dismay that their "juggling act" is not recognized in the wider society; and feelings of burnout when they become overwhelmed by their efforts to balance competing demands. How teachers negotiate these tensions is explored. Suggestions are made for how to enhance the sustainability of good teaching in public education, especially in areas of high student need, such as high-poverty urban districts. (Contains 1 table and 5 footnotes.)