At the Department of Education headquarters in Washington, officials no longer refer to the No Child Left Behind law by name. Last June, the quaint red schoolhouse the Bush administration built in front of the department building as a symbol of his signature domestic policy was torn down. While the impact NCLB has had on the nation's classroom is still the subject of fervent debate, there's no doubt that the Obama administration intends to strike a new path for education reform.

When President George W. Bush signed NCLB in 2002, the policy met with bipartisan praise and looked set to become the most influential federal reform of the nation's schools since desegregation in the 1950s. Today, efforts to reauthorize the law—something that was scheduled to happen in 2007-continue to languish in Congress, unable to gather enough momentum from either party in either chamber. Its sinking trajectory demonstrates how difficult it can be for politicians in Washington to improve the quality of education offered in classrooms across the country.

The attitude many educators, politicians, and the general public have toward NCLB can be characterized in a single word: conflicted. The law mandates that 100 percent of K-12 public school students meet state proficiency standards in reading and math by 2014. Schools that miss the mark could face sanctions that include staff restructuring or takeovers by outside agencies. Most educators and activists agree the law has helped expose wide gaps in academic achievement between white students and their economically disadvantaged, minority peers and has identified low-performing schools.