SAN MARCOS ---- Entering freshmen at Cal State San Marcos are improving in both math and English, but remain somewhat behind their colleagues throughout the CSU system in total scores, according to a report released Wednesday by the CSU system.

The report, which examines whether the 839 Cal State San Marcos students who showed up in fall 2003 were ready for college-level work, listed 56.4 percent of the freshmen proficient in math and 46.1 percent proficient in English. This compares with the 52.9 percent at the university deemed ready in math in the fall of 2002 and the 45.5 percent in English.

On the 23 CSU campuses taken as a whole, some 63.3 percent of the 37,870 freshmen were deemed adept at math and 51.8 percent in English. In 2002, 60 percent had math proficiency and 51 percent were proficient in English.

The numbers continue to fall short of a goal set by the CSU board of trustees that says 74 percent of all freshmen should be proficient in math and 78 percent in English. By 2007, under the board's policy, 90 percent of entering freshmen are to be proficient in both subjects.

The report also noted that more students than ever are adept in both areas since the CSU began in 1998 to test for proficiency and conduct remedial classes. The 2003 results show that 42 percent are proficient in both subjects when they enter college, a jump of 10 percentage points from 1998.

At the same time, the report stated, all but 3 percent of the freshmen who arrive behind the curve end up "fully proficient" in both English and math after taking remedial classes on the campuses in their first year.

At Cal State San Marcos, David Barsky, the associate vice president for academic affairs, said CSUSM's scores fall just below the middle among the 23 campuses of the California State University.

He also said that in math, the gains recorded at CSUSM are outpacing those of the CSU system as a whole. In English, though, the record has been less sanguine and the reasons for that remain unclear, he said.

"The really heartening thing," Barsky said, "is that there doesn't seem to be any sign that our improvement trend is slowing down."

In Long Beach, David Spence, the CSU executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer, told the board that he was confident the university would meet the trustees' goals on time.

He called for an early warning system that would schedule extra help for high school students who are falling behind in being adequately prepared for college-level work. Spence proposed that the schools offer extra help to those students.

"Proficiency has improved significantly, but is not reaching the benchmarks set by the CSU board of trustees," Spence said in a statement. "This year's results underscore the need for an early assessment program that will assess high school juniors' readiness for college English and mathematics and the need for additional math and English classes during the high school senior year for those students who aren't college-ready."

The CSU said it urges college-bound high school juniors to volunteer this spring to take a new version of the California Standards Test that adds 15 questions in both math and English, plus a writing sample. The test is aimed at identifying those in need of remedial help. Armed with the test results, CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said the high schools could offer the right kind of special help to the test-takers when they return for their senior year.

The test results, which are expected to be reported in August, would also show students whether they already have the skills for college math and English. If so, they would be exempt from the CSU's English and math placement tests.