Tests are valuable. They provide a common measure of how well students are doing, and high-stakes tests give students a strong incentive to study hard. But it's wrong to have a single test determine whether students graduate. If we want to make higher standards work, teachers must understand what they are and how to teach to them. They need professional development coordinated with their state's standards and curriculum guidelines based on the standards.
Tests have to reflect the curriculum.
Discipline and Common Sense Zero-tolerance policies work, too. Where they have been appropriately applied to serious offenses, there have been fewer incidents of violence and disruption. Despite several horrifying incidents in recent years, school crime is at its lowest level in decades, especially in urban schools. As with higher academic standards, however, the policy must be carefully drawn and sensibly implemented. Discipline codes are supposed to make clear exactly what kinds of behavior go over the line, as well as the consequences that will follow for kids who engage in them.