More than one in 10 of California's high school seniors still have not passed the state's high school exit exam, with English learners, black and poor students lagging behind the rest of the population, according to a report released Tuesday.

An estimated 47,925, or 11 percent of the state's high school seniors must have passed the high school exit exams administered in February and March if they want to graduate with their classmates, according to the latest data. These figures include results from the November test, but do not include the February and March results.

About 89 percent of the 430,894 members of the class of 2006 who must pass the exam to receive a diploma had done so as of November, said Jack O'Connell, the state's superintendent of public instruction, who wrote the 1999 law that established the exit exam and continues to defend it as a key tool in preparing students.

"We do all of our students a tremendous disservice if we allow any of our students to graduate with diplomas without meaning," he said.

Ninety-six percent of white students and 94 percent of Asians had passed the test after the November results were calculated. The figure was 82 percent for Hispanics and students classified as "economically disadvantaged," O'Connell said.

The analysis shows a large gap in the test passage rates for certain student groups, including blacks and English learners.

An estimated 31 percent of English learners and 20 percent of black students have yet to pass both portions of the exam.

"I'm particularly concerned about African-American students and English language learners," O'Connell said. "The answer is not to ignore the achievement gap by giving diplomas to unprepared students."

At Redondo Union High School, only six seniors still need to pass one portion of the exam and a seventh student, who recently transferred to the school from out of state, must pass both parts, Mary Little, the school's co-principal said.

"The seniors, I think they are thinking they are all going to pass it," Little said. "We did do some intervention for them. Some of them are getting pretty close. We're hoping we can get them through."

At Mira Costa High School, most seniors have already passed the exam. As of November's test, the school has a 95 percent passage rate among its seniors. Of the remaining 5 percent, 40 percent -- 12 students -- must still pass one part of the test. Another 40 percent had not taken the test until March and 20 percent -- six students, had passed neither the English nor math, said Carolyn Seaton, Manhattan Beach Unified School District's Director of Educational Services and Technology.

"We're very proud of our passage rate," Seaton said. "We fully anticipate our results to be even higher."

Schools across the state are anxiously awaiting the release of the scores from the February and March tests. Those results should be released within about seven weeks.

The Los Angeles School District, Local District 8, had not received the November test results, said Howard Vogel, the district's coordinator of intervention and testing. The district implemented a special "boot camp" program this year to help its students pass the exam and results from the district's efforts should be apparent when the March test data surfaces.

"We won't see the results until the end of May," Vogel said about the program, "but it seems to have gone over very well at the school sites."

An additional test will be administered in May to students across the state, but results will not be available in time for students to be able to join their class at graduation.

The Human Resources Research Organization, an independent evaluator of the high school exit exam, conducted the analysis the state released on Tuesday. The organization estimates that 89 percent of the class of 2006 has passed both the test's English-language skills and math portions.

If the state's high school graduates are to survive, let alone thrive, in an increasingly demanding economy, O'Connell said, "They must have the fundamental skills -- English and math."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.