"Policymakers seek to fine-tune paths to meaningful diplomas (via testing)"
If students the first time around don't "pass"
Let them re-test using an alternate, somewhat easier exam
That they can pass, and thus qualify to graduate with their class.
Standards, after all, are set primarily to be ignored if they prove to be inconvenient.
As the late Sen. Dirksen reportedly said:
I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.
Everett Dirksen
Other utterances--off this particular topic--are very apt in other current arenas:
I have said, with respect to authorization bills, that I do not want the Congress or the country to commit fiscal suicide on the installment plan.
Everett Dirksen
The mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion.
This one fits to a "T" the problem posed for constitutionality
(should she be confirmed by the Senate)
by Obama's choice as Supreme Court nominee.
