89 Percent Of Seniors Have Passed Graduation Test So Far

Sacramento, CA — About 89 percent of California high school seniors who are required to take the state´s graduation exam have passed the test so far, but success rates are lower among blacks, Hispanics, English learners and the poor.

State school Superintendent Jack O´Connell says 88.8 percent the more than 430,000 members of the class of 2006 that must pass the test to get a diploma had done so by last November.

That left nearly 48,000 seniors who hadn´t passed both sections of the test, which measures students´ skills in math and English.

Those figures don´t take into consideration seniors who may have passed the test in February or March. They also don´t include 22,000 special education students who don´t have to pass the test to graduate this year.