Strike Cut Fitness Test Scores : Health: Many L.A. schools could not complete the exams. Results of the state test are not an honest evaluation, the district says.

Los Angeles students scored poorly on a statewide fitness test because students at many schools did not complete all parts of the exam, school officials said Thursday.

Teacher boycotts and a shortage of school days after a nine-day teacher strike forced many schools to skip parts of the test, resulting in the automatic failing of their students, officials said.

“This is not an honest evaluation of what our kids did,” said Diana Munatones, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Our teachers had boycotted a lot of their responsibilities, with some teachers giving the test while others didn’t. Others administered only part of the test.”

Los Angeles students performed at less than half the fitness levels of other California students on the test given last spring to fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders. Results released this week show only 6% of the district’s fifth-graders, 8% of the seventh-graders and 10% of the ninth-graders passed.

Developed by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, the state test requires students to pass all four parts: flexibility, sit-ups, pull-ups and a one-mile walk/run.

Some school principals said they skipped the one-mile walk/run because by the time classes returned to normal after the strike, the weather had become too hot and smoggy for such exertion.

“In my judgment, it was too hot for the run,” said Cantara Street Elementary School Principal Sue Beever. “Without a strike, we’d have had time to reschedule it. But this was in June.”

The tests, given to nearly 800,000 students, are the newest part of the California Assessment Program, which also evaluates individual school performance in academic subjects such as reading and mathematics.

Statewide, 26% of ninth-graders passed, but only 15% of the fifth-graders and 20% of the seventh-graders passed. In Los Angeles County, 21% of the ninth-graders passed, while 17% of the seventh-graders and 13% of the fifth-graders passed.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said that regardless of Los Angeles’ results, statewide results confirm suspicions that youngsters are more inclined to sedentary activities, such as watching television, than youth in the past.