The first meeting of a conference committee to fix No Child Left Behind went smoothly Wednesday. Few of the senators and congressmen in attendance registered staunch opposition to the compromise bill.

The Senate bill would give states more power over what to do with failing schools, although some state-designed plan to identify and reform failing schools is required. The amount of federally-required testing in schools would fall, and the remaining tests won’t be tied to any federal consequences. The bill also prohibits the Department of Education from encouraging states to adopt specific academic standards, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has been doing with Common Core using waivers from No Child Left Behind.