This space explores issues in public education policy, and it advocates for a commitment to and a re-examination of the democratic purposes of schools. If there is some urgency in the message, it is due to the current reform efforts that are based on a radical re-invention of education, now spearheaded by a psychometric blitzkrieg of "metastasizing testing" aimed at dismantling a public education system that took almost 200 years to build. Thursday, December 01, 2011 That was Einstein's definition.  In this commentary from Ed Week, Kevin Welner considers how long it might take the same reform repeated for decades to become the status quo: HOW MANY DECADES BEFORE "REFORM" BECOMES "STATUS QUO"? Education Week Commentary -- December 1, 2011 By Kevin G. Welner Pause for a moment and warily inhale the decaying fragrance of well-aged change. The nation's established school reformers have been on the ascendency for decades, and the so-called "change" they offer is simply more of the same. Consider this brief recap of school reform over the past three decades, focused in particular on privatization and choice, as well as standards-based testing and accountability. Reform in the 1980s: "A Nation at Risk"; site-based management; basic-skills testing; graduation exams; and the beginning of standards-based reforms. Reform in the 1990s: Alternative teacher certification and, relatedly, programs such as Teach For America; federal promotion of standards-based reform; state-level development and expansion of standards-based, high-stakes student testing; development and expansion of charter school policies; and the first appearance of education management