I reject “high stakes tests” to determine a K-12 school's “academic rating”, and a teachers' "performance rating", but I support objective standardized criteria being used to determine one’s odds of success in certain endeavors. If I were a parent, or incoming college student expected to pay several thousand dollars in college tuition, I’d want to know the odds of my investment paying off.  How else will I know with some certainty if I have the aptitude for college level work?  With A and B grades being handed out like candy in this “dumbing down” culture, I wouldn’t trust high school GPA or class rank as a sufficient predictor.  Advanced placement (AP) exams, SAT and ACT scores do matter, and should not be abandoned by college admission departments, or ignored by those paying the tuition to attend.  Of course, standardized test scores are not the only predictor.  Grit is hard to measure and certainly plays a crucial role.  I also think it is a mistake for colleges to drop the optional essay portion of the SAT.  As an employer, my experience is that fewer college graduates know how to effectively communicate with the written word compared to my new hires of many years past.