On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law. Surrounded by smiling members of the Democratic and Republican leadership, the President declared, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results". NCLB brought sweeping changes to the 37-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and thrust the nation's educators, schools, and school districts into a new world of federal educational leadership. This article talks about the "Washington consensus" and its commitment to educational improvement as well as the critics that goes along with it. This article presents three primary reasons to expect that the NCLB coalition will hold and that sweeping changes will be forestalled: (1) Though the education community has been scathing in its attacks on NCLB, and though many state legislatures have condemned the law, these arguments do not appear to have decisively turned public opinion; (2) Glimmerings of consensus on likely "refinements" are emerging, and these have tended toward the modest rather than the dramatic; and (3) To date, many believe that the "Washington consensus," positing that poverty is no excuse for poor student achievement and that only external accountability will push schools and districts to make tough changes needed to improve, remains largely intact.