This article deals with the role that the National Education Association (NEA) wants in the school improvement agenda. In this article, the author points out how pressure from supporters and critics, as well as the changing education landscape, challenge the union's strategic goals. Both the NEA and its smaller peer, the American Federation of Teachers, face a new and less doctrinaire group of critics, some drawn from Democratic Party ranks. Those critics and many of the civil rights groups that have been traditional allies of the unions are impatient with the pace of student progress among the nation's poor and non- English-speaking students. At the same time, federal budget deficits and an increased productivity mind-set among lawmakers are ruling out big-spending solutions. Sometimes, instead of seeing lots more money for schools, the unions are getting closer scrutiny of contracts that appear to give teachers more generous deals than those offered to private-sector workers. In this article, the author also talks about NCLB strategy and "role clarification."