ATLANTA (AP) - A new state report shows that the number of schools with unusual erasure patterns on standardized tests plummeted last year after a massive cheating scandal that led to tighter exam security across the state.

The Governor's Office of Student Achievement told the state school board Thursday that just three schools were flagged as "severe concern," meaning they had 25 percent or more of classrooms with a high number of erasures. That's compared to 74 schools in the severe category in 2009.

In all, 189 schools were flagged, though most had low patterns of erasures. The schools must conduct investigations and report back to the state by May.

ATLANTA - The cheating scandal that rocked the Atlanta Public School system is apparently just one small part of a larger national epidemic.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation analyzed more than 1.5 million standardized tests from 69,000 schools nationwide.

The AJC found nearly 200 districts had "suspicious scores" that "resemble those that entangled Atlanta".

The cities with improbable test score gains included the school districts of Los Angeles, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston and Dallas.

The latest report gives the rest of the nation is getting a taste of what Atlanta has dealt with for a few years when the newspaper first reported on determined statistical improbabilities with Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) scores.

A state investigation into APS last year implicated nearly 180 teachers in 44 schools.

So far, about 70 teachers have resigned or retired.

ATLANTA -- The Georgia Department of Education has released a list of 156 schools labeled as "focus" schools under the state's new accountability system.

The schools, many of which are in metro Atlanta, are one step above the state's worst performing schools, called "priority" schools, which were released last week. The "focus" schools are ones with a graduation rate of less than 60 percent over two years or have large gaps between the highest and lowest achieving subgroup of students on campus.

Subgroups can be determined by race, special needs and family income.

The state was one of 10 to win waivers last month from the federal No Child Left Behind law.