The administration keeps the right principles in amending No Child Left Behind

EVEN THOUGH the Obama administration is jettisoning the name of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it is not abandoning the core principles embodied in the 2002 law. The administration has embraced the principles of accountability, disaggregating data and insisting that no student groups -- not minorities, not those with disabilities -- be left behind. The details will be key, but it is heartening that the administration is mapping out a direction true to education reform. Let's hope Congress agrees to go along for the ride.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan's plan for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, released Saturday, takes aim at two of the biggest criticisms of NCLB: that it doesn't set a high bar for achievement and that it is so inflexible as to be punitive. The administration's plan would scrap the much-maligned adequate yearly progress reports of schools for a new accountability system requiring that all students by 2020 be on a path toward college and career readiness, although this goal is more aspirational than definitive. Students would still be tested every year in math and reading, but other measures, such as graduation rates or scores in other subjects, could factor into the picture of a school's success. Schools would be judged by how much progress students make year by year, not by snapshots that fail to account for different starting points.

The administration would insist that states intervene more aggressively in low-performing schools and where the achievement gap between the haves and have-nots is especially pernicious. It would reward, with extra funding and recognition, high-poverty schools that do especially well. States would be expected to judge teacher effectiveness in part based on student progress, a self-evident notion that nonetheless evokes large resistance.

There are still reasons to be cautious. The administration's focus on the top and bottom 15 percent of schools could allow problems to go uncorrected in the vast middle. It's unclear how the administration hopes to bring about a more equitable distribution of effective teachers, a goal that proved so elusive under the current statute. Moreover, we worry that the administration is rashly scrapping the requirement that parents in failing schools be offered school choice and free tutoring. And if it is going to abandon the 2014 NCLB deadline under which all students are supposed to be proficient, the administration should set out alternate goals for the next five years.

Action now shifts to Congress, where Mr. Duncan is set to testify this week. He has rightly promised to cooperate on specifics -- but not to compromise when it comes to accountability, school turnarounds and teacher quality.