Bermuda public school students are doing better in Terra Nova tests they were when the standardised tests were first introduced in 1999.

But scores at the senior school level ? especially in mathematics ? remain well below the US mean and in some cases have worsened in the last five years.

Department of Education statistics provided to The Royal Gazette for the last five years show that results in the Island?s primary schools have improved across the board and students are now comparable to to the top half or one-third of US students.

At the other end of the scale, senior one and senior two students? scores are comparable to the bottom 30 percent of US students and are especially weak in maths.

In response, the Department of Education plans to implement the Bermuda Math Literacy project by February 2004.

The Terra Nova tests have been administered since 1999 where the students sat just the reading portion of the test.

The performance by primary three children in reading skills has risen by 20.8 percentage points, marking this group as the most improved in reading skills. In 1999, primary three students scored 41.7 percent and steadily improved each year, reaching 62.5 percent in 2003.

In language, primary three students? performance rose by 13.4 percentage points from 46.2 percent in 2000 to 59.6 percent in 2003. The primary three students? maths scores also jumped from 45.1 percent in 2000 to 65.9 percent in 2003, an increase of 20.8 percentage points.

Senior two students have been the one group that have not consistently improved.

Senior two students scored 43.4 percent in reading in 2000 and 21.1 percent in 2003. Maths scores started at 37.5 percent in 2000 and fell to 29.5 percent by 2003. Language scores for senior two students were 40.4 percent in 2000, 33.1 percent in 2001, 40.7 percent in 2002 and 46.1 percent in 2003.

Senior one students have also struggled with maths. In 2000 students scored 17.7 percent while in 2003 they scored 28.9 percent.

Primary six students have seen the most improvement in scores in maths. Between 2000 and 2003 the scores rose 25.8 percentahe points from 33 percent to 58.8 percent.

Primary six scores have risen in reading and language. Between 1999 and 2003 reading scores rose from 37.2 percent to 49.5 percent. Scores for language rose from 32.2 percent in 2000 to 50.7 percent in 2003.

Middle school two students made the most improvement in the three categories with students scoring 27.8 percent in 1999 in reading and 43.5 percent in 2003.

Language scores rose 18.5 percent between 2000 and 2003 with students scoring 28.8 percent in 2000 and 47.3 percent in 2003. Maths scores rose 17.5 percentage points in maths with students scoring 24.1 percent in 2000 and 41.6 percent in 2003.

Primary four and primary five students continue to remain near the mean score throughout the years tested.

Primary four students have made the most improvement in maths scoring 40.4 percent in 2000 and 52.4 percent in 2003.

But Primary five scores dropped from 2002 to 2003. In reading students scored 51.6 in 2002 while they dropped in 2003 to 46.8 percent.