First, as a former HS English/Expository Writing teacher, I can tell you that standardized tests whould never be used as the basis for H.S. graduation.  The only thing used should be taking enough credits aka classes with passing grades.  Standardized tests should be used as a TOOL to help a student think about different types of careers or further education.  The fact that colleges and universities have to teach remedial classes is because they are more interested in collecting tuition dollars than simply allowing only students with good enough scores on ACT or SAT and H.S. graduation to enter!  

As that former teacher, I wouldn't trust today's standardized tests to do anything useful except keep people who have made a fortune pushing Common Core including the Arab Emirates who have funded a lot of it!  One way to take over America is dumb everyone down!  I just hope there are still teachers out there who actually know their subjects and simply teach those!