Choose the best answer to complete the following sentence: Standardized tests that are linked to graduation, promotion, and other high-stakes outcomes are . . .

a) a good idea because they create incentives for students, teachers, and schools to meet high achievement standards.
b) a good idea because they help to ensure that all students will graduate with at least a basic foundation of academic skills.
c) a bad idea because they stigmatize students who do poorly and ex acerbate educational inequities along socio economic, racial, and ethnic lines.
d) a bad idea because they encourage a curriculum driven by fact memorization and test-taking "tricks" instead of critical thinking and other higher-order skills.

Poll the staff of any elementary, middle, or high school and you will probably get the full range of responses to this question in equal numbers. Similarly, education researchers are far from reaching a consensus about whether testing students for high-stakes outcomes actually improves learning. While some researchers seem to focus primarily on the potential and others on the pitfalls, many seem to agree that some key questions are not being asked in the current rush toward high-stakes testing. According to the latest figures released by the Education Commission of the States, a bipartisan policy group, 24 states now require students to pass exit tests before they receive their high school diplomas, and this number continues to grow as additional states phase in such requirements.