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I don't know about other states, but Indiana is in the process of replacing the high school Graduation Qualifying Exam with End-of Course Assessment (tests). The ECA test will have to be mastered by students who intend to graduate and go on to college.
There are three separate ECA tests; algebra, English, and biology. This is much more specific than the GQE. I'm not sure at what grade level the tests are taken, nor do I know when they were taken. I do know the results (from the newspaper) of my county and surrounding counties.
The scores are based on pass/fail (and pass-plus). Quite frankly, in my opinion, the results are alarming. In my old high school (where I graduated, but taught at the Middle School), 52% passed algebra, 58% passed English, and only 24% passed biology. The state average was 61, 63, and 37% respectively. Read again the last sentence of the first paragraph. I think some students are going to have to reconsider their plans.
In the district I live, where my kids went to school, scores were not great, but mostly better than average (69, 70, 34)
Other districts varied greatly, but for the most part, the results were abyssmal.
Now the blame game begins. 1) Lack of student incentive? I would think they would want to be fully prepared to do their best. 2) Teacher ineffectiveness? Perhaps, but when I taught, I thought teachers were very conscientious, working very hard to educate their students. 3) Curriculum and text books? While I had (have) my doubts about certain areas of curricula, for the most part, I think it's on the right track. I do, however, fault text books. I was seldom satisfied with the science books we had to choose from, and the best of the lot left much to be desired. (In the last science book I used, the word "evolution" was never mentioned--like it was a curse word!) And 4) Teaching methods? Do students still dissect frogs, or do they use computer simulations? It's the age of the internet--high tech stuff, but what about the old fashion lab work (biology)? Is the computer anything more than a glorified textbook? I really don't know, being out of education for 12 years.
Whatever the cause (and I could have added a #5, parents?), test scores/results are not good. And it's not good for America. Where are we headed?
These are tests to determine if you pass/fail high school? 
Albert Einstein said, "imagination is more important than knowledge". I also tend to think that the complete lack of creative time in school isn't helping anything. But I should save this long winded comment for my own blog.
