Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has, over the past 12 months, tackled unrest over the No Child Left Behind law, the hurricanes' impact on schools, and "Postcards from Buster." As secretary, Ms. Spellings inherited a department stung by a scandal over federal payments to the commentator Armstrong Williams for promoting the Bush administration's signature education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act, without disclosing the arrangement to the public. Ms. Spellings also faced a mounting rebellion among states unhappy with what many legislators and officials saw as the over-prescriptive and underfinanced mandates of the law. And she could not have foreseen that seven months into her tenure, a vast natural disaster would overshadow much of her first-year agenda. Despite the unexpected, Ms. Spellings said last week that she was pleased with the year's progress, particularly when it came to the No Child Left Behind law.