Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind. Any difference?

Today the San Francisco Chonicle looks at the new laws aimed at reforming education in California, and compares Obama's Race to the Top initiative with the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind Act. Here's an excerpt:

To anyone who has spent time in a school over the past decade, such reforms will sound familiar: They have been part of the federal No Child Left Behind Education Act that has strictly governed school accountability since 2001.

California's new Race to the Top plan "sounds very similar to No Child Left Behind," said Mike Kirst, education professor emeritus of Stanford University. "What's different is that NCLB relies on top-down enforcement from the state and federal governments," while the new plan requires parent participation to fix low-scoring schools.

"It's a bottom-up strategy," Kirst said.

Yet the education law most closely associated with former President George W. Bush - No Child Left Behind - and the new competition created by President Obama's education team - Race to the Top - are strongly intertwined. That's intentional, education experts say.