The North Carolina State Board of Education, as part of the Quality Assurance Program, established a computer proficiency requirement for students in grade eight for the 1996-97 school year and beyond in order to receive a North Carolina high school diploma. The first opportunity to meet the requirement is during the eighth grade. Passing the computer skills standard requires passing both the multiple-choice and performance tests. For the 1996-97 school year, 67.4% of the first-time test takers and 74.8% of all students who took the tests met the requirement. A higher percentage of females (79.1% for all females) than males (70.6% for all males) who took the test passed during the 1996-97 school year. There were wide disparities in performance among subgroups, with the Black (55.0% overall) and Hispanic (56.9% overall) subgroups having lower percentages passing than the Asian (81.6% overall) and White (84.4% overall) subgroups. There were also wide disparities in performance among the different categories of exceptionality. Approximately 33.5% of the students identified as limited English proficient who took the computer skills test met the requirement. The report includes graphs and tables illustrating results, sample questions and answers, and result data by county and region. (SWC)