About 20 percent of the current crop of seniors had not yet passed the California High School Exit Exam by the end of their junior year, according to new figures released Friday, virtually the same rate posted by last year's incoming senior class.

That means just like last year, some 70,000 students across the state will be juggling the pressure of their senior year with remedial study and mounting anxiety over passing the exam in time to walk with classmates at graduation.

The class of 2006 was the first to be denied diplomas for failing the exam, even if they met all other graduation requirements.

To break a developing pattern of static scores, public schools must redouble efforts to spot struggling students earlier — even as early as middle school — and help English learners become fluent faster, state school officials said Friday after the latest analysis of exam scores.

The official passage rate for the class of 2007 so far is 78.7 percent — up a bit from the previous class's 78.4 percent at the end of its junior year.

With the clock ticking toward graduation, the latest passage rates illustrate the challenge ahead for schools:

- About 90 percent of white and Asian students in the class of 2007 passed by the time they completed 11th grade, compared to 69 percent of Latino and 64 percent of African-American students — percentages that have not changed considerably from rates posted by the classes of 2005 and 2006.

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67.7 percent of students identified as economically disadvantaged passed as 11th-graders, up from 66.3 percent the previous year.

Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, has urged students who have not passed to keep trying.

"My goal is a 100 percentpassage rate," said O'Connell, who has championed the exam since his days in the Legislature and during his two terms as state schools chief.

At last count, 91.5 percent of the class of 2006 has passed, according to the evaluator, Human Resources Research Organization, headquartered in Alexandria, Va. The state has contracted with the agency to analyze scores since the exam was established in 1999.

State officials say they are still collecting data to determine how many of last year's seniors who have not passed the exam met all other graduation requirements.

O'Connell said the state Department of Education will expand efforts to share successful strategies for raising passage rates, especially those of English learners, through the agency's Web site, http://www.cde.ca.gov.

High school students get their first crack at the exam during 10th grade and have several opportunities to pass through 12th grade. The English/language arts portion of the exam covers material through 10th-grade, while the math portion covers material through eighth-grade, including basic algebra.

O'Connell said there is no cutoff for the number of times people can take the exam after 12th grade.

The state reports throughout the year on how many students have passed each section of the exam, but does not have the resources to match the data to produce cumulative scores, which is why it contracts with an independent agency, state officials said.