More students met performance targets on the California Physical Fitness Test in 2008-09 than in the preceding year, according to results released by the California Department of Education.

The recent results showed more than half of the students in the fifth and seventh grades successfully met five of the six targets, as did two-thirds of ninth graders, the three grades in which the test was administered.

"I am pleased that our students continue to make strides toward becoming physically fit," said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.

However, O’Connell said there is room for improvement. He said statistics show that today’s children are twice as likely to be overweight than their counterparts of the 1980s, and that teenagers today are three times as likely to be overweight as those in the 1980s.

"Our students must take responsibility for their fitness, health and overall well-being so they can compete on the playing field, in the classroom and on the global stage," O’Connell said.

The 2009 test scores show that 29.1 percent of students in fifth grade, 34.1 percent in grade 7, and 37.9 percent in grade 9 achieved in the Healthy Fitness Zone for all six areas of the test. These results represent a 0.6 percent increase in fifth grade students’ scores, a 1.2 percent increase in seventh grade students’ scores, and a 2.3 percent gain in ninth grade students’ scores compared to last year’s results.

According to the results, 63 percent of ninth grade students and more than 65 percent of fifth and seventh grade students scored in the HFZ for aerobic capacity, which is perhaps the most important indicator of physical fitness. The results for students in the class of 2012 cohort – ninth graders in 2009 –who scored in the HFZ have shown steady improvement over similar students in the classes of 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Students from the class of 2012 achieving the HFZ in six out of six fitness standards in grade 5 scored 2.2 percentage points higher than the class of 2009 students. Grade 7 students from the class of 2012 achieving the HFZ in six out of six standards were 1.8 percentage points higher than the class of 2009 and 1.3 percentage points higher than class of 2011 students.

Grade 9 students from the class of 2012 achieved the HFZ in six out of six fitness standards and were 10.5 percentage points higher than students from the class of 2009 and 2.3 percentage points higher than students from the class of 2011.

For complete Physical Fitness Test results, visit the CDE online at www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/pf/pftresults.asp.