Newly released assessments of the physical fitness of Connecticut students shows improvement since last year — although many school districts remain below the state’s target
On Monday, the State of Connecticut released new data measuring students’ physical fitness. Derived from the Connecticut Physical Fitness Assessment, the assessment measures aerobic endurance, flexibility and upper body and abdominal strength and endurance with four tests conducted three times in grade school and once in high school. The new data offers a look at the physical well-being in each state school district over the course of the 2025-26 school year
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The new numbers do show gains relative to prior years. In most parts of the test, students are back to doing as well as they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Just over half of students passed all four tests simultaneously — a challenge which is more difficult than passing one component alone
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On what the department calls “curl-ups,” similar to a sit-up, students are doing better than they were pre-pandemic. The aerobic mile, though, is where schools often fall short. Just 68% of students met the state’s target “fitness zone” for that test, which can be completed eitherheart rate, or71% of students met the state’s target on the mile
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Students are also struggling with push-ups. Fewer than 75% of students were able to meet that challenge, which required completing 7 push-ups for a 10-year-old boy or girl, according to state testing guidelines
The school districts of Barkhamsted, Brass City Charter, Chaplin and Cornwall performed the highest on each of the four individual measures of fitness. Cornwall School District also had the highest percentage of students completing all four tests simultaneously with 89% of students doing so. The districts of Essex, Hartland, Lisbon, Orange and Wilton all saw at least 4 in 5 students complete the four tests simultaneously.
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Connecticut includes fitness scores as part of its effort to measure “how well a school is preparing its students for success in college, careers, and life,” according to the Department of Education. It sets a target of having 75% of students complete all four tests simultaneously, which only about 50% of students managed in the last school year
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Only 10 districts met that standard, with another three falling just short
