Homeschoolers have assumed the responsibility for this decision for years:

The requirements for a diploma have varied over time. What has not changed, however, is the public need to feel confident that graduation from high school represents a real achievement.

But what that achievement encompasses and when students are ready to graduate remain contentious questions. Does graduation represent minimal competency or the mastery of school subject knowledge? Do high school graduates gain the knowledge and skills necessary to lead successful lives, or only those necessary for postsecondary education? These seem like important issues, but two questions most concern me today: When are students ready to graduate, and who should decide?

In response to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, many states have given over to test-makers considerable power to decide these questions.

The real bottom line question is, whose vested interest should be respected? A corporation’s vested interest in their product, a school system in its institution, or parents’ vested interest in their children?

Read the entire piece here.