["TESOL Quarterly, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nThis qualitative study explores how secondary content‐area teachers of emergent bilingual (EB) students navigate tensions between linguistically responsive professional development (PD) and the implementation of state‐mandated College and Career Readiness (CCR) curricula in south Texas. It draws on data from coaching sessions and individual interviews with three educators who participated in Project SELFIES, a PD initiative intended to promote critically informed and linguistically responsive pedagogies among secondary educators serving EB students. Focusing on middle school context, which is under‐researched in CCR literature, the study examines how teachers experience and respond to CCR‐aligned curricular mandates such as Energize and Ascend Learning. Based on the thematic data analysis, the findings demonstrate how the three content‐area teachers experienced and responded to conflicting expectations, systemic constraints, and their own evolving identities as critical educators. The article presents findings within four interrelated themes: (1) curricular imposition and the erosion of teacher agency, (2) tensions between critical PD‐driven practices and prescribed curriculum, (3) emotional burnout and institutional pressure, and (4) systemic exclusion of EBs from policy visions.\n"]