KCBS - 740 AM/106.9 FM (San Francisco - Oakland - San Jose) February 1, 2010

HEADLINE: Looking at "No Child Left Behind" Law Reform

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- President Barack Obama wants to reform the previous administration's signature education law known as "No Child Left Behind."

One difference between the old law and the reforms the president wants to enact centers around the way a school's success or failure is judged.

The Bush law focused on test scores. The director of Stanford's Youth and Education Law Project, Stanford law professor Bill Koski said the Obama reforms would look at a school's progress over time.

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"He'd like to scrap the deadline to have all kids be proficient in reading and math by 2014, as was N.C.L.B.," Koski said. "And develop a more nuanced system of measuring how schools are performing."

Martinez Congressman George Miller, one of the original authors of No Child, supports President Obama's proposed changes.

"We have to judge schools on the performance of teachers, the performance of students, and we've got to give them incentives to move in a new direction," Miller said. "And I think that's what the administration is trying to achieve with this act and I think it's quite possible in this Congress to do it on a bipartisan basis."

President Obama said the new goal is to make sure all students graduate from high school college and career ready.