President Obama delivered a solid speech on education yesterday, trying to create a bit of space between him and the teachers’ unions, challenging students not to be slackers and drop-outs, and talking up parental responsibility.

He introduced a new phrase to the Obama lexicon: “cradle to career,” to describe his vision of pre-school through post-secondary education. (The name appears to come from a 2007 Pew/Education Week report.)

And he asserted that, when it comes to figuring out why many schools are terrible, the “time for finger-pointing is over.” (Though presumably not in first grade, where finger-pointing remains a time-honored tradition.)

What’s most interesting is how much the spirit of No Child Left Behind imbues the president’s education agenda.

While he dare not speak its name (nor his predecessor’s) favorably, President Obama’s message on education focuses on reform, standards, moving beyond the money question – the same language that President Bush used when talking about education (and President Clinton, less famously).

Most of what President Obama discussed yesterday – increased support for early childhood education, higher standards for students, performance pay for teachers, new pathways to teaching, reducing high school dropouts, broader and simpler access to federal college aid – are issues that President Bush promoted heavily throughout his tenure.

In fact, a little déjà vu set in for people familiar with the Bush education agenda when they read the Administration’s fact sheet that accompanied yesterday’s remarks. It’s called “Expanding the Promise of Education in America.” President Bush’s second-term education policy book was called “Education: The Promise of America.”

President Obama differs in some of the details. And he’s making a push in some areas that represent second-generation reform efforts – broader consensus on world-class achievement standards in the states, longer school days and years (ideas that reflect the influence of the Gates Foundation on his team’s thinking).

But there can be no doubt that we’re living in an NCLB world, and even if he growls when he says the name, President Obama’s policies are a reflection of that law’s success in changing the shape of the education discussion.