Let's just gloss over the "defund the police" comparison, those are just bait.
Grades-based selection for high school seems crazy to me, it perpetuates problems with stratifying K-12 based on the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood. Parents are going to chase the schools with the best standing. Those with the means would do anything to boost the kids grades, including extra-curriculars. Those who don't have the means langish.
We see that all the time in places like HK.
Evaluating teachers based on weak proxies such as student grades are disasters. Weapons of Math Destruction has a whole chapter on it, and she'd explain it far better than I can.
I'm not opposed to grade-wide testing, as a data point to assist with the curriculum. But this articles doesn't even try to piece together a coherent point...