More students locally and statewide are passing a high-stakes test required for a diploma, most Southwest County school district and state education officials said Monday.

Students must pass the California High School Exit Exam, which tests them on English and math skills they are expected to pick up in middle school or early on in high school.

About this time last year, roughly 675 Southwest County seniors had yet to pass the exam. As of Monday, only about 300 seniors working to graduate in June haven't passed the test, officials said.

The local figures are similar to a statewide trend reported Monday by the California Department of Education. The most recent statewide data shows that this year's seniors are passing the exam at a rate of 91.4 percent, up 2.1 percentage points over last year's figures, department officials said.

Southwest County school district representatives attributed their higher passing rates to efforts to provide tutoring and other academic measures helping struggling students to pass the test.

Most special education seniors qualify for an exemption this year from the exit exam as a result of litigation filed in 2005. This is the last year for the exemption and some sort of compromise on future waves of special education seniors is expected by June, state officials said.

Local school district officials said that most of the seniors who have yet to pass the exam are students with disabilities who are still required to take the test, as well as those from non-English-speaking backgrounds who are still learning the language.

Those groups are still making gains, also mirroring a statewide trend, the officials said.

For example, 116 seniors in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District -- about 9 percent of the class -- have yet to pass both the English and math sections of the exam this year. That figure is down dramatically from this time last year, when a couple of hundred seniors in the district had yet to pass the exam.

Alain Guevara, director of secondary curriculum for the Lake Elsinore district, attributes the decrease to a combination of specialized Saturday school classes, exit exam courses conducted during the school day for struggling students, and before- and after-school tutoring programs.

"We've focused our intervention programs," Guevara said. "Those efforts have really paid off."

In the Murrieta Valley Unified School District, about 50 seniors have yet to pass the exam, officials said. This time last year, about 90 seniors hadn't passed it, officials reported at the time.

At Paloma Valley High in Menifee, about a dozen seniors haven't passed the exam, Principal Jim Smolenski said. Comparable figures for this time last year were unavailable Monday.

The Temecula Valley Unified School District is waiting for the results of its March administration of the exam. The district had 126 seniors who had yet to pass the exam, but that number will decrease once the results from the March testing come in, school district officials said.

The March results will likely put the district on par or in better shape than where it was this time last year, when about 90 seniors had yet to pass the exit exam, officials said Monday.

Students are first given the test during the spring of their sophomore year, and if they don't pass the first time, they can retake the exam five more times.

If students don't pass the exam by the time they are set to graduate, but earn enough credits to graduate, local school districts offer them special certificates, which are not considered diplomas.

State Superintendent Jack O'Connell said Monday that 4,797 students in the statewide class of 2006 who did not pass the exam by the end of their senior year have since passed the exam by repeating their senior year, taking adult education classes or engaging in some other effort.

The cumulative exit exam passing rate for the class of 2006 is now an estimated 92.3 percent.

Moreover, statewide results show for the first time a narrowing of the achievement gap between students of color and poverty when compared to the state's white students, he said.

"This is one of the first times I've seen data showing we are making progress (on the achievement gap)," said O'Connell, speaking to reporters in a telephone conference from Ulysses S. Grant Senior High in Van Nuys. "I am happy to report that intensive instruction and remediation is showing results for students most at risk for failing the exam. Our efforts are paying off."

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.