Delaware's three-tiered high school diploma system was an ill-advised legislative attempt to minimize the state's high standards for public education. No one paid much attention to the foolish decision to divide graduating seniors into basic, standard and distinguished categories until this spring. Now that more than 50 percent of all 2004 graduates are likely to get the lowest basic diploma, parents are up in arms.

The governor and Legislature plan a thorough examination of education reform. The diploma flap drove these decisions. That's unfortunate because the diplomas obscure the real problem: High school and middle school students are not getting a proper education.

At the elementary level, public schools are steadily improving. Test scores show that many students are meeting or exceeding standards and others are improving. At the middle and high school level, though, failure to meet standards is more the norm than success.

Only 40 percent of this year's graduates met the state standard in reading, writing and mathematics needed to get a standard diploma. Only 8 percent exceeded standards.

Much has been made of the standards' effect on minority students. This year, 76 percent of black graduates and 71 percent of Latinos will get basic diplomas. That is not the fault of the three-tier diploma system, as some suggest. The problem is in the state's failure to develop adequate curricula for meeting the higher academic standards, and failure to sponsor rigorous professional development so classroom teachers fulfill their responsibilities.

It's true students suffer because adults have gotten hung up on other issues instead of focusing on curriculum development and professionalism. But that simply can't be avoided by those students graduating this year. Those who remain in school can be helped if the will to do so is there.

Unfulfilled promises

The hard reality of consequences is driving the movement to eliminate the three-tiered diplomas. The widespread failure of students to meet standards should provoke demands that the promise of education reform be fulfilled -- now.

• Curriculum development and teacher training for the secondary level remains incomplete.
• Teacher accountability remains hung up when it should be fully implemented. Making student progress account for at least 20 percent of a teacher's annual performance review seems a good first step. But that percentage ought to be higher, as the Delaware Business Roundtable and the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce recently informed state education officials.
• The state must find a way to test students at the start of the school year as well as at the end of classes. That's the only fair way to measure progress under a classroom teacher. If we demand that teachers be held accountable for their students' achievement, there must be an equitable way of measuring it.
• Money to provide the intense learning environment needed for poor and minority students to succeed hasn't been forthcoming. Pedagogical literature is full of studies on how to teach poor children. It is unacceptable that Delaware refuses to face this problem.

Some of the state's school district superintendents are once again trying to sabotage school reform. They fear accountability or do not want to have their annual job reviews consider how well students in their districts progress. Some of them also tried to frighten parents and bully legislators a few years ago with predictions of student failure if higher academic standards were embraced.

They were proved wrong when elementary students responded to new curricula and performed better. These superintendents must be stopped.

Education reform seems to have lost some of its momentum. That can't be countenanced. Too many people have worked very hard for more than a decade to let the reforms implode and Delaware's public schools return to mediocrity.