More than one-fourth of Utah's brand new high school graduates haven't demonstrated they have the basic skills needed for life, according to Utah Basic Skills Competency Test data released Tuesday.

About 74 percent of the Class of 2007 passed all three sections of that test — reading, writing and math — mandated by state law. That means more than 9,500 teenagers are capping their public school experience with either a diploma bearing a stamp that they didn't pass the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test or worse, a certificate of completion.

"The idea that one-quarter of the students did not pass one or more of the three test areas is extremely disappointing," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who carried the U-PASS legislation in 2000 to hold schools accountable for student achievement, including the high-stakes basic skills test.

"We have to remember this one-quarter of students who didn't pass are the students who are left in the system. There's another 20 percent or so who have dropped out additionally, so when you add those to this group, it is shocking. We're turning out young people into an adult world who do not have basic life skills."

But educators and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. have questioned whether the test effectively measures what it professes to, and what these results really mean. And the jury is out on whether the exam will make a difference in a student's future.

State law requires students to pass all three basic skills test sections and gives them up to five times to do it, starting as sophomores. If they don't pass, one of two things might happen. If they attempted the test they're failing three times, then they get a high school diploma with an embossed stamp stating they did not pass all three sections of the test. If they didn't at least try it three times, then they get a certificate of completion. There's also a state voucher available for tutoring to help students who habitually fail.

More than 27,000 students in the Class of 2007 passed all three sections. That's out of the some 36,500 enrolled, the state reports.

Slightly less than 14 percent of students, or about 5,000, passed none. More than 1,700 failed only the math exam, which historically has the highest failure rate.

As for the Class of 2008, 69 percent of students so far have passed all three sections of the test, the state reports. In the sophomore class, 58 percent passed all three on the first try.

Last year's graduating class was the first affected by the basic skills test, but the number of students not passing all three sections was never nailed down. The best guess was at least 3,700 had not passed, because that's how many the state said were still failing the math test.