The state Board of Education on Thursday released the annual ABCs of Public Education report for the 15th and final time. It shows how students performed on end-of-the-year and end-of-course tests in grades 3 through 12.

 

Gov. Beverly Perdue and state school leaders highlighted results showing high school graduation rates that for the first time topped 80 percent, up from 70 percent five years ago.

 

But fewer than half of the nearly 2,500 public schools met learning objectives in reading and math for their overall student bodies as well as separately measured minority groups and students from low-income or limited-English households.