BALTIMORE City school officials have many good reasons to trumpet the just-released TerraNova test results for this year. Middle school scores on the basic skills test have begun to rise, and impressive gains in elementary scores over the past four years have solidified.

Still, there is one overlooked and disturbing note that threatens further progress.

The reading scores of students in grades one to three remain stuck around the 50th percentile. And school officials are on the verge of committing the cardinal sin of education reform: the failure to sustain the highest level of support for a cornerstone reform initiative.

The initiative at risk is "Reading by 9." At the outset of the city-state education partnership in 1997, city school officials recognized that students who are not at grade level by the end of third grade are usually doomed to academic failure.

Action was taken, and there was a lot of progress.

System-wide reading programs were adopted. Class sizes in grades one to three were reduced and summer school was vastly expanded. Kindergartens have been expanded to all day. And "reading coaches" provide classroom help to teachers.

These investments have paid big dividends in higher test scores.

Most notably, the average score of first-graders has risen over four years from the 25th percentile to the 59th.

Still, about half of all students in the early grades are below grade level, and last year only 17.4 percent of third-graders earned satisfactory scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) test in reading.

Worse, city school officials seem to be afflicted with the kind of attention deficit disorder that plagues education reform.

The strong sense of mission and momentum behind early literacy is lagging. For example:

Despite research showing that the earlier the interventions the better, kindergarten has not been included in the class size reductions (aides have been added to many classes, but research shows that they are generally ineffective). And only a tiny percentage of low-performing kindergartners are in summer school.

The early literacy difficulties of children in the crucial pre-kindergarten to first grade years are not diagnosed and treated.

In a breach of faith with the policy to end "social promotions," students who are retained in the first and second grades receive little additional assistance.

Class size in grades one to three has been reduced to about 20, but research points toward 15 as being most beneficial.

Almost nothing is being done to evaluate the effectiveness and provide for continuous "research and development" of reading programs.

Money is, of course, tight, (even as schools anticipate funding through the Thornton legislation that was passed by the General Assembly in the spring).

Yet, early literacy hardly shows up in the city's most recent $363 million plan setting forth long-term priorities.

In that plan's long shopping list, there is no funding for such indispensable needs as lower class size in kindergarten to third grade and summer school for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. There are little to no additional funds for intensive early interventions and earmarked training for reading teachers. In fact, no comprehensive plan exists to further boost early literacy.

And, astonishingly, an "office of reading," set up by the city this year in response to recommendations from a school system/ community partnership "Reading by 9" task force, has just been abolished.

Why has "Reading by 9" slipped so far off the radar screen?

There are, of course, many competing priorities, especially middle and high schools that are in worse shape than elementary schools. Still, school officials have allowed their attention to wander from the overwhelming evidence that the gains so far will plateau or even recede without major additional early initiatives.

That spells disaster for even the best middle and high school reforms.

It's no coincidence that the city dropout rate is about 50 percent, with so many students not achieving early reading proficiency. Research shows that students rarely overcome early deficits in reading.

So city officials, despite all the pressing subjects on their schedule, must spend a lot more study time and resources on "Reading by 9."

Their report card to the public won't improve much more if they don't.

Kalman R. Hettleman is an education consultant, a former member of the Baltimore City school board and a former state human resources secretary. His e-mail address is khettlem@erols.com.