Wake's high school graduation rate has dropped more than what was previously reported.

The state released this month revised graduation rates for individual school districts. In Wake, the overall 4-year graduation rate is 78.4 percent. It had been reported at 78.6 percent in August.

The graduation rate also dropped since August for several Wake groups, including low-income students.

You can now see for yourself the kinds of questions that students are asked on the state's standardized tests.

State education officials posted online today copies of the end-of-grade and end-of-course tests that were taken this past school year. The goal is to promote transparency at a time when questions have been raised about what students are tested on.

Three versions of each state exam are offered annually. One version of each exam was posted online and will no longer be used in the state's testing program.

Click here to view the tests and the answer keys.

Guilford County Schools' Mission Possible program is often cited by school board critics in Wake County who argue that intensive funding is a better way than busing to help high-poverty schools.

Well, the newly released state ABCs test results may put a dent in that idea. Guilford County has 10 of the state's 75 low-performing schools this year, meaning the school's passing rate was under 50 percent and it didn't meet growth expectations.

Of the 10 low-performing Guilford County schools, nine are in the Mission Possible program. The passing rate was as low as 29.7 percent at one of the Mission Possible schools - Oak Hill Elementary.

Wake saw improvement on this year's latest round of ABCs results that can't be attributed to just the inclusion of retests in elementary and middle schools.

Wake had 12 Honors Schools of Excellence and Schools of Excellence, meaning at least 90 percent passed state exams and the school made growth. That's compared to four schools last year.

All 12 schools were in the western part of the county.

New results on state tests show gains in Wake County with the inclusion of retests making the improvement even heftier in elementary and middle schools.

School officials say preliminary results show there was a "modest" increase in the passing rate on the end-of-grade tests given in grades 3-8 when you don't include retests. With the retests, the passing rate rose 8.5 percentage points in reading and 6.5 percentage points in math.

For the first time, the state told school districts to include successful retests in the passing rates. Gains have been seen all across the state.

Add Durham to the list of school districts crowing about gains on state test results.

The press release on the district's web site credits teachers and principals for "these impressive gains." But the press release, posted today as part of the district's release of preliminary test results, doesn't directly mention the fact that retests were counted this year.

“The EOG and EOC preliminary information is fantastic news and true confirmation that our teachers, principals and students are working hard, with the support of parents, to ensure that good teaching and learning is happening in Durham Public Schools,” said Superintendent Carl Harris in the press release.

The hype is already beginning in school districts across the state about how students did so much better this year on the state's testing program.

The improved performance shouldn't be much of a surprise considering how for the first time elementary and middle schools were allowed to count passing scores on retests. That fact got only a brief mention in some school district press releases.

(To be fair, you could get the info from Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools if you dug past the press release to click on the attachments.)

There are going to be fewer state tests for students

As noted in today's article by Lynn Bonner, state legislators are echoing Gov. Bev Perdue's call to drop the number of state end-of-course exams that high school students take. The exact number that would be eliminated remains to be seen.

Also mentioned in the article is that state education officials are dropping the third-grade pretests next school year. That will have some ramifications.

How much are you willing to "suspend disbelief" about the kind of world class education that should be provided in Wake County's schools.

"Suspending Disbelief" is the title of a new report that will be officially released next week by the Wake Education Partnership on what it would take for the Wake school system to offer a "world class education."

Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, gave a sneak peek of the report at the WakeUP Wake County forum earlier this month.

The school system is touting how a new method for auditing individual schools will "help schools see how they can improve."

Click here for the district's press release on the new audit process.

The new approach drew a lot of discussion at the March 31 school board committee of the whole meeting. Much of the talk was around whether the audits might actually hurt morale at individual schools.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST