High school students in the US ought to be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate

While it does mean that the teacher is faulty for teaching to the test, it does not mean it is a rare occurrence. If a teacher does not comply with these standards and does not teach to the test, and therefore students do poorly, it will reflect badly on the teacher. With the economy in a perilous state even the education system is suffering. Teachers do not want to give administration a reason to fire them, and if their students do poorly it will seem as though they are not an effective teacher. I am not saying standardized tests should never be given. I agree that they can help a school see where there are flaws within the curriculum. Also, to clarify I believe the SATs and ACTs are important but I am saying they are not the main or sole consideration. Due to value restandardization our societies' values have changed over time to believe an average of grades are more important than one. Therefore one test should not decide whether a student is allowed to graduate. I feel you have mistaken my point in thinking standardized tests are terrible and should never be given. However, there are many tests that can be given to measure the body of knowledge of a group that are repeatable with validity and reliability. Your reference to the MCATs is in fact a fallacy as it is completely irrelevant in this argument. You attempt to bring up a parallel case but there is too much dissimilarity. We are debating tests high school students take, not those preparing to enter the medical field. Also, an MCAT is truly objective. As in subjects such as biology there is only one right answer. For example, if asked how many bones are in the human body the only correct answer is 206. However, we are discussing the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. In writing (and sometimes reading) there are open-ended questions, which must be scored by humans. I find your main flaw to be that you feel these tests are not subjective. You even go as far to say human scoring is taken out of the equation. When scoring these questions it is not only subjective, but also prone to many errors. I will refer to someone who has and is also an expert in the field. According to a September article in the New York Times by Todd Farley (upcoming author of the book "Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry") there are many problems. An excerpt of his article says "Because our company's deadline for returning the tests was that day, my colleague and I had to score them even though we were already well into happy hour." This is suggesting that not only was the testing subjective but the graders were forced to complete tests while intoxicated. Another example in the same article states that a student had written an essay on an inappropriate topic and received a zero for that section. The article states that the essay was well written, just inappropriate. So once again I ask how is this an objective way to grade a test that will decide whether a student graduates? Rather than have one test determine the future of a student, let the teachers of that student decide. They see the child everyday, not read their test once from opposite sides of the coast, while locked in a room, trying to get through as many essays as possible. A standardized test should not be required to graduate, as there are too many flaws in the system.