While California’s schoolchildren are slowly improving their physical fitness, kids today aren’t as fit as they were 20 years ago, according to results from the state Physical Fitness Tests released Monday.

The state’s “Fitnessgram,” a compilation of fitness test results given to fifth-grade, seventh-grade and high school freshman students near the end of the 2008-2009 school year, showed improvement between 0.6 and 2.3 percent for the different grade levels over the previous year.

The 2009 test indicated that 29 percent of fifth-graders, 34 percent of seventh-graders and nearly 38 percent of high school freshmen met all six state fitness benchmarks.

The exam tests aerobic capacity, body composition, abdominal strength, trunk extensor strength, upper-body strength and flexibility.

A student must meet or exceed five of the six test standards to pass and be considered in the state’s Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ). If high school students don’t pass five of the six tests in their freshman year, they can re-test the following year.

High school students are only required to take two yearlong physical education classes to graduate. Students who do not pass the state fitness tests are required to take more physical education classes, with a few exceptions that include illness, district exemption or permanent exemption.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a press release that he was pleased with the steady improvement, but that teenagers today are three times as likely to be overweight as their counterparts from the 1980s.

Lucia Mar Unified School District students posted the most impressive local test numbers in comparison to statewide averages.

Seventy-nine percent of freshmen in the district tested in the state’s HFZ, nearly 14 percent higher than state averages.

Lucia Mar also had its fifth-graders (70.7 percent) and seventh-graders (78.2 percent) well above the state averages of 55.7 percent and 60.4 percent, respectively.

Josh McClurg, physical education department chairman at Nipomo High School, said he thinks Lucia Mar high school students focus on passing the fitness tests to free up their schedules for other electives, Advanced Placement (AP) classes and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program instruction.

“I think with the high school kids, if they don’t pass it they have to take four years of physical education, which can set them back,” McClurg said. “We test four times a year, so the kids know where they’re at and where they need to be.”

Lompoc Unified School District students tested above state levels, with 71.1 percent of freshmen, 70.8 percent of seventh-graders and 59 percent of fifth-graders reaching the HFZ.

Lompoc students in all three levels were extremely strong in abdominal strength, trunk strength and upper-body strength. Ninety-six percent of freshmen and 98 percent of seventh-graders were in the HFZ in trunk strength.

Orcutt Union School District fifth-graders posted the district’s best test numbers with 59.4 percent meeting the state standards. Fifty-nine percent of seventh-graders and freshmen met state standards in five of the six tests.

Santa Maria schools posted a mixed bag of results. Just over 60 percent of freshmen, 55.2 percent of seventh-graders and 40.3 percent of fifth-graders made the HFZ.

The Santa Maria freshmen were above the state average in flexibility and trunk extensor strength, but below average in the other areas. Seventh-graders were above state averages in trunk strength and body composition. Fifth-graders’ results mirrored those of the freshman class.

While the district was below state averages in all three grade levels, it excelled in some areas of testing and suffered in others.

“A lot of our kids just aren’t getting the physical activity they need,” explained Lorene Yoshihara, department head of physical education at Santa Maria High School, who coordinates testing for the district. “Because of technology, I don’t think our kids are getting out enough and being as physically active as they used to be.”

Santa Maria High students actually use some new technology to get active. The school also used a block grant to invest $70,000 in weight machines, treadmills and other workout equipment. The school’s weight rooms feature “Dance Dance Revolution,” an interactive video game designed to get kids an aerobic workout.

Lucia Mar also uses “Dance Dance Revolution” in its fitness program.

Yoshihara said some of the state’s tests are a bit ambiguous because some athletes don’t pass the body composition tests because the index is a mathematical formula that considers height and weight.

“We had a girl who was about 5-foot-5 and weighed about 158 (pounds), but she was all muscle. If we would’ve done the body mass index on her, she wouldn’t have passed the test,” Yoshihara explained.

Regardless, the tests are forcing students to reach certain fitness levels in order to graduate.

According to the National Diabetes Education Program, about 177,000 people under age 20 have diabetes. Most is type 1 diabetes, but type 2, normally seen in adults over 45, is on the rise in young people.

The prevalence of obesity in children 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years, as well.

Yoshihara said despite all of the numbers, improved fitness always comes back to more activity.

“When I was growing up, we used to go down to the elementary school and play all day and not worry,” she said. “Now, (parents) have to worry, so kids don’t get out as much.”

December 1, 2009