The state high school exit exam just didn't add up. Passing the exam of math and English-language arts skills is a graduation requirement for students starting with the Class of 2004.

But by a vote of 44-32, the Assembly wisely passed a bill that would delay the test requirement until the Class of 2006.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, who authored the measure, pointed out that many high school students haven't had an adequate opportunity to prepare for the test.

She has figures to back up that claim.

A study by the Virginia-based Human Resources Research Organization showed that statewide just 60 percent of students in the Class of 2004 could pass the math portion of the test. That's because some students have not been exposed to needed subject matter in earlier grades. Many of next year's seniors have not been taught enough algebra that is on the test.

More than half of high school juniors in the Kern High School District failed the math portion of the exit exam, with about 60 percent passing the English portion.

When Gov. Gray Davis and the Legislature approved legislation in 1999 calling for the test requirement by 2004, only 20 percent of schools reported teaching most of California's academic standards.

The legislation has prodded schools in the right direction so that now more than 80 percent of the schools teach and meet these standards.

Assemblywoman Hancock gave this good rationale for passing her legislation: "Until we make it possible for every child to have smaller classes, qualified teachers and up-to-date material so they can learn the subject matter, it is really not fair to penalize (the students.)"

Indeed. Any teen-ager without a high school diploma runs the risk of falling between the employment cracks.

Reed Hastings, president of the state education board, said he also favors a delay of the high school exit exam for two years.

He also echoed the views of many by wondering if the exam could withstand a legal challenge brought by students who failed the test and then contended they lacked adequate resources to pass it.

The 1999 legislation that established the exam was appropriately designed to promote student, teacher and administrator responsibility.

The test should not be delayed for an extended period of time. California has committed to using the exam as a performance benchmark in conformance with President Bush's education act. The federal government makes its school funding partly contingent on how many students take the test and whether their scores go up.

But a two-year delay in implementing the exit test sounds about right.

Hancock's bill should be passed into law.