Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

San Marcos students now have to pass high school fitness tests under a new California law:

The new law, which goes into effect with this year’s freshmen class, is geared toward students who have room for improvement on the statewide physical fitness test —- the so-called Fitnessgram.

The test is designed to measure categories such as muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and aerobic capacity, the body’s ability to generate energy with the use of oxygen.

Results of the test are reported each year in grades five, seven and nine, and are based on students’ performance in six tasks: curl-ups, trunk lifts, push-ups or pull-ups, shoulder stretches, body composition and a 1-mile run.

While students are required to take two years of physical education to graduate high school, the new law requires students who do not pass at least five of the six tasks on the test in ninth grade to continue to enroll in physical education until they pass. Physical education is not required after the sophomore year, but students can still take it as an elective.