With Secretary Arne Duncan at the helm, the U.S. Department of Education is gradually--and sometimes quietly--chipping away at key parts of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act as states and districts demand more relief from the elusive goal that all students be what the law terms "proficient" in reading and math by 2014. The pressure on Mr. Duncan to waive substantial parts of the 9-year-old federal school-accountability law is only growing as Congress continues to drag its feet on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), of which NCLB is the latest version. Although President Barack Obama and Mr. Duncan have called for revision of the law by the start of the next school year, draft legislation has yet to be introduced, and school leaders anxious about rapidly approaching deadlines are clamoring for leeway in the meantime. Officially, the Education Department remains mum on any plans it has to issue waivers if the ESEA is not renewed by the time students return to school in the fall. But during Secretary Duncan's first year in office, in 2009, he granted 315 waivers under NCLB--many linked to the education aid Congress provided as part of the economic-stimulus package. That marks a nine-fold increase in the number issued under his predecessor, Margaret Spellings, the year before, according to annual reports made to Congress. Information for 2010 is not yet available. But waivers continue--including some that strike at the heart of the requirement that students, schools, and districts be measured against the same state tests.