In hiring Daniel A. Domenech, the directors of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) were looking for an advocate who could position the group in the front row of education policy debates in Washington. Domenech, who began his job as the executive director of the AASA in July, has battle scars from years spent in the rough-and-tumble arena of local education debates and politics, both in New York and Virginia. And he has corporate polish from his last job, as an executive with the publisher McGraw-Hill Education in New York City. The AASA's president, Randall Collins, who is the superintendent of the 3,000-student Waterford, Connecticut, public schools, said Domenech has the political savvy and credibility as a longtime district administrator to ensure that the 13,000-member group will not be cut out of important education policy decisions--particularly the reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The association, which represents superintendents and other district-level administrators, was one of the few national education groups to openly oppose the measure when it was passed by Congress in 2001. In the era of high-stakes accountability measures, long-established education groups like the AASA have seen their influence diminished. Instead, newer groups such as the Washington-based Education Trust and organizations founded by social entrepreneurs, such as Teach For America and New Leaders for New Schools, are capturing federal policymakers' attention. Domenech, 63, pledges to change that situation, and to make the AASA a more inclusive entity that mirrors the rapidly changing demographics in the nation's public schools.