I am currently a high school senior, and I take mostly AP classes. My favorite of those classes was AP US History. I have learned more about this country in that one class than all of my eleven years of basic schooling. The only problem was that US History is a state requirement to pass, and my teacher needed to stop his already difficult course and give us dumbed-down information so we could "pass" the state test.
The State tests are too easy, and if you barely pass Biology, English, Algebra, or US History you can pretty much pass these tests with flying colors. But they add stress because if you don't pass these tests you can't graduate. I say let the teachers handle it and teach of their own free will instead of letting a simple test get in the way of proper education.