New state data shows that more Georgia schools met a federal education benchmarks after the state included summer re-tests of CRCT exams. But the total number of schools passing muster still decreased from last year.

In the final reckoning for 2011, just over 72 percent of the state's school met federal standards for adequate yearly progress, or AYP.

That's an increase from preliminary results released in July, which estimated that 63 percent of Georgia's schools would meet the federal benchmark.

But the number of schools making AYP is still down four percentage points from the previous year, when 77 percent of schools met the standard.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the bar for reaching AYP has risen every year, with the final goal of 100 percent of students testing proficient on state tests by 2014. In Georgia and across the country, fewer schools have met the benchmark as the goals have toughened.

Georgia has requested relief from federal regulations that sanction schools and districts that do not make AYP. State officials are proposing to replace AYP benchmarks with a state-developed system that rates schools on how well schools prepare students for college and careers.

Atlanta Public Schools, whose status was withheld from preliminary reports as the state determined which data was affected by investigations into cheating on state tests, did not make AYP in 2011. The state also revoked 2009 AYP status for more than 40 city elementary and middle schools where state investigators found test tampering.

The state will also begin to oversee five Atlanta schools that were found to have met AYP under false pretenses for more than five years.