It's been a decade since former President Bush proposed and Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law. The goal of this law was to raise student achievement and reduce the gap between different groups of students, especially white and minority students. The law's passage reflected a broad consensus among elected officials, business leaders and others that American schools can and should do better. With his election in 2008, President Obama has continued the reform movement. His Race to the Top initiative aims to promote policies that encourage adoption of best practices for better student learning. Around the country, governors, mayors, and other state and local officials have also worked to propel changes designed to ramp up student learning. Nearly all education leaders and politicians at the national, state and local levels emphasize how crucial good schools are to progress as a nation. But even though many may use similar words and rhetoric to talk about public education, there are actually strongly competing visions among policymakers about what works best. This paper offers four approaches that work best in improving student learning. These include: (1) Set high standards and hold schools, teachers and principals accountable for helping all children meet them; (2) Give parents more choice about the schools their children go to; (3) Give public schools the financial and community support they need to help all children learn; and (4) Make sure every school has a talented, committed principal who will work closely with teachers to transform what happens inside the school every day. (Contains 11 resources.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the Dilenschneider Group.]