ESCONDIDO - State Superintendent Jack O'Connell said Tuesday he's seeking an additional $32 million from the state to finish a student tracking system that would provide more accurate information on public school students, including graduation and dropout rates.

O'Connell, speaking to the North County Times editorial board in Escondido Tuesday on a wide range of education issues, said the new data system will provide a key piece of the state's accountability system.

Educators throughout the state have already assigned most of California's more than 6 million school students with ten-digit numbers similar to Social Security numbers. The numbers are a way to track students from kindergarten to the end of their public education.

O'Connell said he is seeking support for Assembly Bill 1656, to be heard for the first time in the Legislature this week, that seeks $32 million to fund data collection efforts in each of the state's more than 1,000 school districts. O'Connell said he hopes to have the system operating by 2009, with reliable data by 2013.

O'Connell also said he continues to lobby the U.S. Department of Education for changes to President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" legislation enacted in 2000 intended to bolster school effectiveness through a combination of academic requirements and sanctions for schools that do not meet them.

Currently, O'Connell said, the state has an accountability system based on student improvement. The federal Department of Education, as part of the newer federal requirements, has imposed another accountability system that requires all students in each grade to meet common goals.

O'Connell argued that the state system, known as the Academic Performance Index, which measures improvement on standardized tests, is a better measure of academic growth.

Further, O'Connell said, the two competing systems create public confusion. A school may meet the state improvement goals but not meet the federal requirements.

O'Connell highlighted statewide scores on another test, the California High School Exit exam, released Monday. He said more than nine out of 10 seniors in the class of 2007 have already passed the exam that became a graduation requirement last year.

At 91.4 percent, the passing rate for this year's seniors rose 2.1 percentage points over last year's class.

The results of the exit exams given to seniors in the class of 2007 through February show that 390,697 students have passed both portions of the exit exam.

The exit exam results also document a narrowing of the achievement gap for the first time, O'Connell said. Hispanic and black students, who have historically struggled in school, are now catching up to their white and Asian counterparts more quickly than ever, he said.

O'Connell said schools have created programs that appear to be working, according to exit exam results.

Further, O'Connell said, more Latino and black seniors have passed already this year than at the same time last year.

Compared to last year's class of 2006, the passage rate for black students in the class of 2007 rose 4.5 percentage points - more than twice the 2.1 point gain posted by the class of 2007 as a whole.

Latino students showed a 3.4 point rise. In contrast, the passing rate for white students grew by only half of a percentage point. The passing rates in all subgroups posted gains over last year's class.

Further, O'Connell said, of the 17,522 seniors who did not pass the exit exam in 2006, almost half have re-enrolled in high school or enrolled in adult school to continue their educations. Almost 4,800 of these "fifth-year" seniors have since earned a diploma, O'Connell said.

O'Connell also waded into the immigration issue Tuesday, saying public schools are required by law to educate any school-aged child in the state, regardless of immigration status.

"Twenty-five years ago there was a federal court decision that said, 'They're here,' " O'Connell said, emphasizing the federal mandates that require the state to provide a free, equal and appropriate public education for all.

Educating every student, regardless of origin, is not only required by law, but it's good for the state, O'Connell said.

"There's a reason we are the sixth- or seventh- largest economy in the world as a state, and that is our diversity," O'Connell said. "I think that's a strength."

One of the best ways to meet the needs of minority students in cities such as Oakland and Los Angeles where "more than 100 languages are spoken" is to hire minority teachers from the same background, O'Connell said.

"If you want to understand the culture, the traditions, the language, the buying characteristics of those countries, hire people from there -- and they're already here," O'Connell said.

- Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or online at pireland@nctimes.com.