A really great book. Payne does a good job of being very objective and honest about what needs to be done and what needs to stop in terms of education and attempts to reform education in America. Perhaps the only possible downside is Payne's inclusion of humorous analogies like "spouting out reforms faster than Baskin Robbins creates flavors." They make the book more entertaining and it feels like more of a conversation than a report of the findings of various studies, but it does also make it seem a bit less professional, although it is clearly well studied.