Post-It notes with children's names tell the story of how, in just five years, a federal law with a funny name has changed school for everyone. "We spend most of our days talking about or looking at data," principal Barbara Adderley says.

Test scores run her week.

She meets with kindergarten teachers on Monday, first-grade teachers on Tuesday and so on. The meetings begin with a look at each teacher's "assessment wall," filled with color-coded Post-Its representing each pupil and whether he or she is making steady progress in basic skills. Once students master a skill, the Post-Its move up the wall.

"If they don't move, then we have to talk about what's happening," Adderley says.

What's driving the talk? President Bush's landmark education law, dubbed No Child Left Behind.

A cornerstone of Bush's domestic agenda and one of his few truly bipartisan successes, it took what was once a fairly low-key funding vehicle (it was known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act before Bush borrowed the catchy name from the Children's Defense Fund) and turned it into a vast — and contentious — book of federal mandates.

At its simplest, the law aims to improve the basic skills of the nation's public school children, particularly poor and minority students.

At Stanton, it seems to have made a difference. In 2003, fewer than two in 10 kids here met state reading standards; by 2005, about seven in 10 did.

The law turns 5 years old today.

It faces a tough future as Congress prepares to reauthorize it — a group of 100 education, religion and civil rights leaders today announces an effort calling for "major changes."

Is it improving education nationwide? It's too early to tell — many schools didn't get around to enacting most of its more than 1,000 pages of regulations until two or three years ago. U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says the law wasn't being fully implemented in all 50 states until 2006.

But one thing is certain: No Child Left Behind has had a major influence on the daily experience of school for millions of kids. Here are five big ways it's changing schools.