ATLANTA - Black and Hispanic students failed Georgia's mandated graduation exam this year at higher rates than whites or Asians, a gap in achievement that the state's education superintendent called a "huge problem."

"We're working every single day here in Georgia to make up for a long history of educating some well and others not so well," Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said.

In order to graduate, students must pass a standardized exam in English, math, social studies and science. They receive four chances to pass the assessment. If they flunk just one section, they can't earn a high school diploma without winning an appeal from the state Board of Education.

More than 4,600 seniors last year left without a degree because they could not pass.

Mrs. Cox said the new curriculum, designed to be more challenging academically, and other state programs to improve teaching or provide extra attention to students having difficulty should result in better test scores.

Most of Georgia's public school students passed the exam, and in the past, parents and students have said the graduation exam as too easy. But some experts are concerned that thousands flunk the basic skills assessment yearly.

The science part of the test illustrated the widest gap between whites and minorities - 80 percent of whites passed, nearly 30 percentage points higher than the 51 percent of blacks who passed.