The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives state boards of education a tremendous opportunity to revamp education policy. The federal government will have dramatically reduced influence over issues related to standards and accountability systems. States will have increased freedom to revise state standards and assessment systems, change the weights on test-based performance measures in accountability systems, and include a greater variety of non-test measures for accountability than was possible under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In short, the new law gives state policymakers the opportunity to implement their own ideas for reform. Yet they will do so with the sobering knowledge that many past reform efforts in education have failed to promote real change. This article outlines five recommended ingredients in education reform that would increase the likelihood of policy success that state policymakers will need to incorporate. They are: (1) Consistency; (2) Specificity; (3) Authority; (4) Power; and (5) Stability. Also provided is a policy attributes framework that offers a useful set of hypotheses to guide the development of policies and standards, assessments, and accountability systems.