The unbearable might produce a kind of revolution, and AYP will get us there in a year or two without the waivers.
I like it only because it neuters a bit of executive authority. There's too much of the "we can do it if there's nothing explicitly forbidding us to do it, or if nobody stops us." Nixon was a bit imperial; we justly said the same of *; Obama's following much of the same line.
Some of the mandated reforms are cart-before-the-horse nonsense. Others are the best thinking of today which is doomed to be considered utterly wrong in a few years--like the outmoded best thinking of 5 years ago, which replaced the outmoded best thinking of 10 years ago, which replaced the outmoded best thinking of 15 years ago ...
Duncan needs a bit of humility. The researchers don't have all the answers. In fact, they're probably not even asking the right questions yet because they're furiously answering the questions that they believe lead them to the answers they already know to be correct. And, surprise--the answers they get show that they were right.
New generation of researchers, new generation of beliefs, new generation of correct answers showing that the old ones were, well, limited, misguided, mistaken.
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