Herein lies the problem: Our nation has become exceedingly litigious. Therefore, a student who fails to pass an exit exam and thereby is deprived of a high school diploma can turn around and blame it on the teachers, claiming that they failed to teach him what he needed to know to pass the exit exam.
By having a national standard curriculum and by requiring teachers to cover the material it can be demonstrated through evaluation records and lesson plans and other evidence that the teachers taught the proper lessons at the proper time. While the student can still claim that the teachers failed to offer the proper remediation, other records might show that he had a poor attendance or behavioral pattern.
Here's where standardized testing saves the day: By testing students every year, schools have feedback that can be used to make sure students get the extra help they need. Also it can be shown that the student either made or failed to make progress each year and what steps the school took to remedy the situation.
By having both standardized curriculum and standardized testing, it is nearly guaranteed that students will have been provided with the proper preparation to make sure that they pass the exit exam. Thereby it should be very clear where fault lies should the student fail to pass.
In the old days it was the student's responsibility to pass the test. Now it's the school's responsibility to make sure the student passes the test. It's a little bit ass-backwards, but thanks to the litigious nature of our society, that's what we're stuck with and that's why we're not getting rid of standardized testing or standardized curriculum anytime soon. You may not like Common Core, but any other standardized national curriculum will be just as bad so stop your...