Kids decidedly unfit

The Department of Education recently released the discouraging results of a physical fitness test administered to 1.3 million of California’s fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders.

The test, which measured students’ abdominal strength, aerobic capacity, body composition, flexibility, upper-body strength and trunk strength, found only 31 percent of students were able to pass all six assessments, according to The Associated Press.

In addition, the test found that more than 13,000 students failed all six tasks—a rate higher than in previous years—and that almost 30 percent of children were at risk of health issues due to body fat. However, the percentage of students who passed all six tests was about the same as in 2011.

“When we can call fewer than one out of three of our kids physically fit, we know we have a tremendous public-health challenge on our hands,” said Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of public instruction.