SEATTLE – About three-quarters of this year’s 10th-graders already have met the testing requirements to get a high school diploma in the state of Washington. But the man who promises to replace Washington’s statewide education tests with new exams says that is not good enough.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn said Thursday that the state needs to do a better job of helping the students who are not passing the tests and those who are dropping out of high school.

At a news conference to report on how high school students around the state did on the spring Washington Assessment of Student Learning, Dorn shared passage rates similar to those in recent years.

But the new state schools chief took a less-than-celebratory approach to his announcement.

He focused on the bad news concerning graduation and dropout rates:

 • The on-time graduation rate for American Indians is about 48 percent.

 • Black students have a WASL success rate of nearly 90 percent, but their on-time graduation rate is only about 60 percent.

 • American Indians have a dropout rate of about 40.8 percent.

 • Overall, Washington students have a 24 percent dropout rate.

“Those numbers, I think, will shock a few people,” Dorn said.

He explained his emphasis on the state’s too-high dropout rate by saying, “We have to be honest with the public about where we stand today.”

State education officials are developing a plan to address the dropout rate, and Dorn said it would include pieces of successful initiatives from school districts around the state.

New high school programs are not the only solution, he added. The state also needs to identify middle school students who are in danger of dropping out and remember what an effect quality preschool can have more than a decade later, Dorn said.

He predicted he might even be able to get the dropout rate down “into the teens” by the time he’s completed his first four-year term in office.

Dorn became the new superintendent of public instruction in January after campaigning to get rid of the WASL.

School officials say his plan is moving ahead despite the state’s economic woes. Starting next year, students will be taking a new, shorter test to judge how they are doing in reading, writing, math and science.

High school students need to pass the reading and writing segments to earn a diploma, along with other graduation requirements.

Gov. Chris Gregoire praised students for their hard work and success.

“It is encouraging to know that more of our young adults are leaving high school fully prepared for their next step in life,” she said in a statement. “I am committed to building on this success. I pledge to use our limited resources responsibly and efficiently to maintain and build our world-class education system.”