This article argues that, with all of its language about reaching "100% proficiency for all students in twelve years" as an "ambitious, but achievable" goal, the current federal administration seems to be on the side of the children in its No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but further investigation reveals that many of the practices mentioned in the act may cause more harm than good. The key component in NCLB is to establish an "accountable" education system in which each state creates standards of knowledge for each grade level and annually tests student progress according to that standard in order to examine the academic progress of students and the performance of schools and their districts. This results in students being taught "to the test." The author states that having an invasive, continuous stream of assessment distracts teachers and students from what should be going on in schools. Instead of focusing on testing, the author suggests that there be a scaling back to a "checking in" type of examination, such as the National Association of Educational Progress assessment, done once in elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school.