The Season of Testing is Upon Us

As we all know, tomorrow is the ELA State Test first day. I have many varying thoughts about the State Tests.
Personally, I believe that the state tests are not necessary,  however there is no doubt that they are a good system for finding out if a student / students are eligible for the next grade. A way that could be used for the same purpose is : asking a student to create a portfolio of some of their best work (a few pieces of work for each subject), and asking the student to hand it into their teacher. The teacher can send it to the state graders, who will decide (based on the student's work) whether they can pass to the next grade or not.
My opinion on the number of days that the tests go on for ( three) is that the test should not take up that number of days. The test is taking up a majority of the school week, and if the third and first test were combined into one test, the test would only take up a minority of the school week.
I think that other subject areas should be included in the test. Social Studies/ History should be included because these subjects are needed in life. We should know when America gained independence, where our natural resources come from, who the first indigenous people were, and all of our knowledge of these subjects should be tested in the exams. Why shouldn't we include these subjects?
My overall thoughts about the test as a student is that the tests are okay, and I think we should keep them, yet maybe we should modify them so that they include Social Studies/History and we should reduce the number of days that they occupy.