In 1987, the administration of North Carolina Competency Tests to public school sophomores resulted in 94.4% passing the reading test and 90.6% passing the mathematics test. Rates were similar to rates for the 1986 sophomores, but were higher than rates for juniors in the 1978-1983 period. The 1987 passing rate in mathematics was lower than for 1984-1986, but higher than in the 1978-1983 period. Extensive comparative tabulations revealed that academically gifted students consistently had higher passing rates. For the non-exceptional students, 96.5%, 92.9%, 91.5% and 92.6% passed the reading, mathematics, writing objectives, and writing tests, respectively. Most dramatic improvements were in reading and mathematics scores among Black and American Indian students. Reading rate improvement of over 13 percentage points was observed for Black students during the 1978-1987 period. Although higher than from 1978-1983, the percentage of American Indian students passing reading and mathematics were lower in 1987 than in the three previous test administrations. With the second administration of the writing test, 88.7% of the group passed the writing objective test and 91.0% passed the writing essay test, both at rates higher than in 1986. Students with handicapping conditions scored lower on average than the non-handicapped students. (Author/RR)