And most of this anti-testing stuff ignores the reason the whole regieme was established in the first place: too many schools weren't even pretending to teach t

And most of this anti-testing stuff ignores the reason the whole regieme was established in the first place: too many schools weren't even pretending to teach their students the most basic of things, including the 3Rs (heck, phonics vs. "Dick and Jane and Their Running dog Spot" is still being fought 60 years after Why Johnny Can't Read was published). I'm certain it's being taken too far without caring about the consequences (which we could point out as another example of how dysfunctional our public schools have become, see above, in the latter half of the 20th Century they simply didn't care if their graduates could read), but graduating from high school in 1979 I was at the edge of the beginning of this in Missouri. And the test was simple (well, after the SATs and College Board achievement tests :-) and covered entirely relevant stuff, things you really should be able to do to earn a high school diploma. This in fact has a lot to do with out current insane college finance regime; the high school diploma became an entirely worthless signal, so when combined with Griggs v. Duke Power, the non-free for the student college degree has become the new signal of minimum competence.