TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

More Kern County students, especially ninth-graders, reached targets and made gains on a state test that measures their physical fitness, according to California Department of Education data released Monday.

Still, only about 24 percent of fifth-graders, 31 percent of seventh-graders and 35 percent of ninth-graders in Kern passed all six areas of the state Physical Fitness Test.

Those are all below the state average.

The test, taken by students in those grades starting in February, measures aerobic capacity, body composition, abdominal strength, trunk extension strength, upper body strength and flexibility. The mile, push-ups and curl-ups are included in some of those tests.

The test is important because fitness is directly correlated to student achievement, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said in a teleconference Monday. A strong body combined with a strong mind equals student success, he said.

"Academic excellence and physical fitness go hand-in-hand," O'Connell said.

Nearly 1.4 million public school students took the test statewide, including about 39,000 in Kern County. The county passage rate was slightly below state averages.

About 38,400 students tested in Kern met targets for at least one area -- roughly 98 percent -- but less than 30 percent met them all.

The biggest jump in students who passed all six parts came from ninth-graders. They leaped nearly 8 percentage points from last year. Seventh-graders increased by about 1 percentage point, while fifth-graders dropped about 1.5 percentage points.

Statewide, students increased slightly from last year in all three grades.

Over the last five years, Kern County students in grades five and seven have improved slightly, while ninth-graders have improved by more than 10 percentage points.

Frontier High School had the highest success rate in the Kern High School District, with 85 percent of ninth-graders passing at least five of the areas, according to the district.

The ninth-grade jump could be a result of a district focus on physical fitness, and collaboration by teachers to figure out the best way to improve fitness in students, said Yvette Renz, ninth-grade physical education teacher at Liberty High School.

The teachers work with students and discuss goals. It also helps, Renz said, that parents get involved and the students themselves are concerned with their scores.

"I think as a school and district, we strongly believe in lifelong fitness in school and outside of school," Renz said. "We want them to be healthy and fit."

The state targets represent a level of fitness thought to provide some protection from the potential health risks imposed by a lack of fitness, which include obesity and Type 2 diabetes, according to the Department of Education.

Schools and districts should look at the data to compare individual student fitness over time and to develop physical education curriculum, said Kenneth Dyar, a former physical education teacher who was named state teacher of the year in 2005 -- the first and only in Kern County.

Dyar, now Delano Union School District's new physical fitness coordinator, said research shows that the more physical fitness a student is involved in, the better the student does academically and on standardized tests.

Dyar trains physical education teachers throughout the county and the state to implement more fitness in school. His message is simple.

"Physical fitness should not be an option, it's an absolute necessity," said Dyar, who spent 13 years teaching physical education at Cecil Avenue Middle School in Delano. "The kids have to have it."