SAN DIEGO - Even with grade-point averages of 3.0 and higher, the majority of Imperial County students who entered their freshman year at California State University schools in 2001 were not proficient in math or English, test results show.

The data collected from tests taken in the fall of 2001 and released this summer, flies in the face of the recently released and highly praised results of the Standardized Testing and Reporting program.

Local educators exalted the results of the 2003 STAR program last week because students in almost all grade levels showed improvement. STAR includes the California Standards Tests, the California Alternative Performance Assessment, the California Achievement Test and the Spanish Assessment of Basic Education.

The CSU system requires new students to be tested in English and mathematics after they are admitted. The tests are used to determine whether students are prepared for college work and, if they are not, to place the students in appropriate remedial courses or activities. Students may be exempt from one or both of the tests if they scored well on other specified tests or completed appropriate courses.

Of the 21 Brawley Union High School students assessed, 19 were not proficient in math and 12 failed to pass the English proficiency test. Still, the students' average GPA was 3.24.

Calexico High School students entering a CSU achieved similar results. Although the 23 students averaged a 3.41 GPA, 20 students were not proficient in English and 17 were not proficient in math.

Fourteen of the 18 Central Union High School students tested were not proficient in English and 11 failed the math portion, while still achieving an average GPA of 3.16.

At Southwest High School, of the 20 students assessed in math, 13 were not proficient. Nineteen Southwest students took the English test and 13 did not pass.

Five Holtville High School students were not proficient in math and seven failed the English aptitude test.

Imperial High School had eight students enrolled in CSUs tested and four were not proficient in math and English.

Calipatria High School was not included in the data.

Although the tests show that many college-bound students are not prepared for college-level courses, only nine students are enrolled in remedial courses at San Diego State University-Imperial Valley campus, said Dean Khosrow Fatemi.

"By the time they reach us they're doing fine, but I'm sure there are some who have to delay coming for a semester or more so they can pass the tests," said Fatemi. "Six months from now we may need to assess (the students), but it would be highly biased right now," said Fatemi.

Until this year SDSU-IV only accepted transfer students entering their junior and senior years, thus the problem of unprepared high school graduates was insignificant. But with freshman entering the university for the first time this fall and a new satellite campus opening in Brawley, officials may have to address new issues of inadequacy.

Since all the freshman accepted to SDSU-IV have 3.70 GPAs or better, Fatemi envisions those students will have little difficulty succeeding in college.