EDITORIAL
Rigorous standards should not be delayed

The Board of Education's decision to delay tougher promotion standards for middle schoolers for three more years slows much-needed reform.

The board had voted in 2002 to require that, by the end of the 2005 school year, students in grades 6-8 must receive passing grades in language arts, mathematics, science and social studies to be promoted to the next grade level. This was part of a broader policy the board adopted calling for more rigorous standards at all levels. Most of these improvements are in place, such as boosting the middle-school requirement from one year of science study to two.

Preparing students to pass the basics should be the least we expect of our public schools. And, in fact, students should be inspired to do much more.

But last week board members balked at imposing the promotion requirements until the 2007-2008 school year. They cited their reasons, including the need to prepare more remedial courses to offer during the school year, to help failing students pass to the next grade. The board also wants a task force to study whether similar promotion requirements could be imposed at all grades. They hope that by the 2008 deadline, all the sixth-graders will have had the benefit of higher standards throughout their elementary school years.

Still, why weren't at least some of these steps taken in the years since the policy was implemented? And will it really take three more years to get ready? With another lengthy postponement, the current class of middle-schoolers won't benefit from the new standards, and arguably will be moving on even less prepared for the heightened challenges of high school.

Some middle-school improvements are coming down the pipeline, regardless of votes by the local school board. Federal standards soon will require schools to demonstrate science proficiency, for example, and while the No Child Left Behind Act may become more flexible, its demands for higher accountability remains.

Let's not keep postponing progress in public education. Our children simply can't wait.