Fitness Scores Show Students Are Out of Shape : Health: Results reaffirm that youths are too sedentary. L.A. County performed worse than the statewide average.

For the second year in a row, most of California’s students did poorly on a set of exercises designed to assess their physical fitness.

“It’s pretty clear the kids just aren’t fit,” Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said today in releasing results of the 1990 California Physical and Health-Related Fitness Test, given last spring to 917,404 youngsters in grades five, seven and nine.

Statewide, only 17% of fifth graders, 21% of seventh graders, and 26% of ninth graders were able to meet minimum standards on four out of five fitness measures. Things have not improved much in the year since the test first was given: In 1989, 15% of fifth graders, 20% of seventh graders, and 26% of ninth graders met standards on four or five tests.

The fitness test, developed by American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, consists of four tasks, plus an optional evaluation of body composition, using a skin fold test to determine the percentage of fat. The standards vary for age and gender.

The results reaffirm that California youngsters are part of a nationwide tendency for youths to be sedentary and out of shape, according to recent studies by such organizations as the Amateur Athletic Union and President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Several programs aimed at countering the trend have sprung up in the last few years. The state Department of Education is redesigning its physical education guidelines to put more emphasis on fitness.

Overall, students did best on the sit and reach test, designed to measure lower back flexibility, and worst on the pullup test on a chinning bar, a measure of upper body strength. Statewide, 66% of all fifth-grade students tested met the sit and reach standards, as did 76% of the seventh graders and 84% of the ninth graders. When it came to pullups, only 40% of fifth graders, 35% of seventh graders and 39% of ninth graders performed adequately.

The other tests were sit-ups, to measure abdominal muscle tone, and a one-mile walk or run to assess cardiovascular fitness. Girls at all grade levels outperformed boys on the “sit and reach” and one-mile walk/run, while boys did better on pullups.

Students in Los Angeles County lagged several points behind their counterparts statewide at all grade levels--only 13% of fifth graders, 17% of seventh graders and 19% of ninth graders met the standards on four out of five tests. Scores for fifth and seventh graders were the same as the previous year, while ninth-graders’ marks dropped by 2%.

Susan Sundell of the California Assessment Program office, which oversees the testing program, cautioned that it is too soon to say whether year-to-year changes mean anything.

“It takes from three to five years to tell whether you have a trend. This coming year is really a key year for us,” Sundell said, noting that an additional 100,000 students were tested this past spring. This year, 96% of fifth graders and 88% of seventh graders were tested, while 72% of the state’s ninth graders participated.

Honig, noting that Gov. George Deukmejian eliminated testing funds from the 1990-91 state budget, said it is unlikely that the fitness tests can be given this school year unless money is made available soon after a new governor takes office in January.

“We’re launching a full-scale effort in the state to get kids to improve their health through nutrition and fitness,” Honig said, “and we need to be able to measure how we’re doing next spring. Without the test, we’re flying blind.”

Sundell said the test results--designed to assess the effectiveness of schools rather than the progress of individual students--make it clear that some districts have comprehensive fitness programs under way.

The assessment office has identified several districts in which at least 50% of the students did well in all four exercises. Locally, they include the ninth graders in Arcadia, fifth and seventh graders in El Segundo, seventh graders in Las Virgenes Unified School District in the Calabasas area, seventh graders in Manhattan Beach and fifth graders in Santa Monica and Malibu.

“We’ve always been an athletically oriented town,” said Virginia B. Gembica, principal of Center Street Elementary School in El Segundo, hometown to several Olympics and professional baseball and football players.

“But those are team sports, and not every child gets to play. We felt there was a need to refocus our attention on individual fitness,” said Gembica, describing a redesigned curriculum that took effect at the district’s elementary schools about three years ago.

El Segundo has a comprehensive program that ranges from adding salad bars to the school menu to testing cholesterol and blood pressure of all students through grade seven to developing a fitness program for the playground. The approach got a boost last year with a private grant from businessman George Konheim. His funding for the Health Champions project provided about $25,000 for instructional materials, an extra teacher and testing equipment, Gembica said.

The Health Champions program also can be found on the three campuses of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Unlike some others, the Santa Monica district spared its physical education specialist from the budget ax.

“We’ve preserved our specialist program and we’re putting increasing emphasis on health curriculum,” said Joel Post, who oversees the district’s physical education program. “And we’ve made a concerted effort to align our physical education program with the state framework.”

Honig said it should come as no surprise that students did well in the districts that have made health fitness education a priority. He added that much depends on what happens at home.

“Where you’ve got an organized program, you get good results,” Honig said, “but a lot of this has to do with the home, too. If you let your kid sit in front of a TV set for four hours a day, you’re not going to get those good results.”

STUDENT FITNESS

The state Department of Education has released results of its second annual physical fitness tests. Last spring, fifth, seventh and ninth graders throughout California were evaluated on how well they performed four required exercises. Because the tests at many schools were given over a five-day period, not every student was present for every test. A fifth evaluation--of body composition as measured by a skin fold test--was voluntary, so not all schools did the test.

Students tested last spring scored about the same as those tested the previous year, indicating that many students remain generally unfit. Because of state budget cuts, Department of Education officials said they will be unable to give the fitness test this school year unless the new governor provides the funds after taking office in January.

Here are the average statewide and Los Angeles County percentages of students who met the minimum standards for each test.

Individual Fitness Standards Met--All Students

% GRADE 5 % GRADE 5 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 66 63 Sit-ups 45 37 Pullups 40 39 Skin fold (optional) 61 57 One-mile run/walk 49 45

% GRADE 7 % GRADE 7 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 76 73 Sit-ups 59 52 Pullups 35 32 Skin fold (optional) 61 60 One-mile run/walk 55 50

% GRADE 9 % GRADE 9 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 84 83 Sit-ups 62 53 Pullups 39 36 Skin fold (optional) 64 61 One-mile run/walk 55 51

Individual Fitness Standards Met by Boys

% GRADE 5 % GRADE 5 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 58 56 Sit-ups 45 38 Pullups 48 47 Skin fold (optional) 54 50 One-mile run/walk 47 43

% GRADE 7 % GRADE 7 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 64 62 Sit-ups 61 55 Pullups 46 43 Skin fold (optional) 57 56 One-mile run/walk 51 48

% GRADE 9 % GRADE 9 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 78 77 Sit-ups 68 60 Pullups 56 51 Skin fold (optional) 65 63 One-mile run/walk 55 51

Individual Fitness Standards Met by Girls

% GRADE 5 % GRADE 5 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 75 71 Sit-ups 46 37 Pullups 32 31 Skin fold (optional) 71 69 One-mile run/walk 51 48

% GRADE 7 % GRADE 7 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 88 85 Sit-ups 58 50 Pullups 25 22 Skin fold (optional) 70 69 One-mile run/walk 59 53

% GRADE 9 % GRADE 9 EXERCISE California L.A. County Sit and reach 93 91 Sit-ups 57 47 Pullups 23 22 Skin fold (optional) 67 67 One-mile run/walk 58 52