SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California school officials say fewer public schools at all grade levels met state and federal benchmarks that are used to evaluate how well schools educate youngsters.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson released those results on Thursday.
Torlakson says 95.5 percent of the Class of 2013 passed California's high school exit exam, which measures competency in reading, writing and math.
But a higher percentage of schools failed to achieve the target score on the state's Academic Performance Index, which combines results from various standardized tests.
More schools also failed to meet rising targets for student proficiency in math and reading set by the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law.
