The 90,000-some students in the Class of 2004 who were expected to fail the high school exit exam can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. State schools chief Jack O'Connell has opted to cancel the planned July administration of the test, which students have been able to take at various times throughout the year, and will likely cancel the September and November administrations as well.

His sensible action will save the state more than $1 million and save the schools the grief of administering a test that would very likely have had no consequence for students. That's because the state Board of Education is almost certain to vote next month to delay the passage requirement to 2006 or maybe even 2007. O'Connell proposes to begin administering the test again next January, when the Class of 2006 will be halfway through its sophomore year.

The delay represents an unmistakable retreat in the battle for higher standards, but it is a strategic one, and it was probably inevitable. An anticipated failure rate of roughly 20 percent of the Class of 2004 would not have been politically supportable. The number of expected failures was also indicative of a reform effort that had leapfrogged ahead of the system's ability to support it: Some of the students who would have been subject to the passage requirement haven't had a reasonable chance to learn the material. In recognition of that reality, and in fairness, the exam's consequences were set to come too soon.

The state would also have been besieged by lawsuits claiming that all students had not had an equal opportunity to learn, and those suits would have been nearly impossible to defend. Even with a delay, and a redoubled effort to improve instruction and remedial efforts for students at risk of failure, California is going to get sued over the exit exam. The postponement may give the state a better chance at defending itself.

There may be no way to avoid losing some of the positive momentum -- evidenced in more rigorous teaching and student motivation in the high schools -- that was building as the 2004 deadline approached. But the state board can try to maintain some of that momentum by making itself clear that it will only delay this exam once, and that the exam's standards -- pegged at roughly the ninth-grade level in English and eighth-grade level in math -- are not negotiable. California students ought to be able, at minimum, to perform at those levels to graduate.