The Brief

For generations of U.S. schoolchildren, phrases like "shuttle run" and "sit-and-reach" likely conjure vivid memories of what was once a staple of American physical education: the Presidential Fitness Test. And thanks to a new executive order, it's slated to return to gymnasiums nationwide.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed the order reviving the test, a set of standardized exercises that schools conducted to measure students' physical fitness for over half a century until 2013, when President Barack Obama phased it out in favor of a more holistic approach. It's not yet clear which exercises will be part of the test going forward, or when it will launch.

It was traditionally conducted once or twice a year for students ages 10 to 17, and included drills like push-ups, the back-and-forth PACER running test and the infamous one-mile run.

And it was a competitive affair: Students who placed at or above the 85th percentile on all exercises were eligible for the Presidential Fitness Award, which Trump's order is also reinstating.

"From the late 1950s until 2013, graduate scholars all across our country competed against each other in the presidential fitness test, and it was a big deal," Trump said at the signing ceremony, flanked by a slew of professional athletes. "This was a wonderful tradition, and we're bringing it back."

Trump is also reestablishing the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition and tasking it with developing criteria for the test. Its rollout will be administered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" report, released in May, bemoans the decline of American kids' activity and physical fitness levels, rising rates of obesity and what he calls the "childhood chronic disease crisis."

Trump's order adds another layer of urgency, saying that Americans' physical wellbeing is in decline, and is a "threat to the vitality and longevity of our country," especially on the eve of 2026 — America's 250th birthday and the year it's set to host the FIFA World Cup.

"Rates of obesity, chronic disease, inactivity, and poor nutrition are at crisis levels, particularly among our children," the order reads. "These trends weaken our economy, military readiness, academic performance, and national morale."

Leaders made a similar argument about patriotism when the original test was introduced in the Cold War era. But the trends cited by the Trump administration have only worsened since then. So experts and educators tell NPR they are exercising caution when it comes to their hopes for a revamped version.

Joanna Faerber, a physical education teacher working with rural Louisiana schools on federal grants, says Trump's announcement drew a passionately divided response in her professional network.

"We all agree that childhood obesity and lack of physical activity and physical education in school is limited," she said. "I think measuring it is the question."

How did the test come about?

In this 1955 photo, Bonnie Prudden helps a student with sit-ups in the Kraus-Weber test — the precursor to the Presidential Fitness Test.

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Pioneering orthopedic surgeon Hans Kraus — now recognized as the "father of sports medicine" in the U.S. — worked with another doctor, Sonja Weber, in the 1940s to create the Kraus-Weber test. They designed the test to evaluate fitness through sit-ups and other exercises focused on core strength and flexibility.

In the 1950s, Kraus and his fellow fitness enthusiast Bonnie Prudden set about administering the test to thousands of schoolchildren in the U.S., Italy, Switzerland and Austria. The researchers found that 58% of American kids failed at least one element of the six-part test, compared to just 8.7% of Europeans.

"We have no wish to change the standard of living by trying to do away with the automobile and television," Kraus said, presenting their work to a White House gathering in 1955. "But we must make sure that we make up for this loss of physical activity."

Their findings — which Sports Illustrated at the time called "The Report That Shocked the President" — spurred President Dwight Eisenhower to order the creation of the President's Council on Youth Fitness in 1956. (That's the same council that Trump reestablished in this week's order.) The following year, the council piloted its own national fitness test.

President John F. Kennedy built on Eisenhower's momentum, launching a nationwide public service campaign encouraging Americans to take the 50-mile hikes once required of U.S. Marines. Kennedy was a strong advocate of physical fitness, penning an influential Sports Illustrated essay to that effect — titled "The Soft American" — as president-elect in 1960. Trump referenced the essay in his executive order, and RFK Jr. talked about it at the signing ceremony.

"He was lamenting the fact that America had prided itself on a beef jerky toughness, and that … we were falling behind Europeans, we were falling behind other nations," Kennedy said of his uncle.

The third iteration of the council under President Lyndon B. Johnson formalized the fitness test in 1966, and added the element of an award for top performers.

From there, the test became a fixture of American P.E. classes, though its components did evolve over the decades. For example, it ditched the softball throw, which came to be seen as more of a skill (for grenade-wielding soldiers) than a measure of fitness.

"I think it was instilled to try to get people back in the '60s ready to enter into the armed forces and get them fit for battle," Laura Richardson, a clinical associate professor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan, told NPR. "And then as time evolved, they said, 'We need to change this.'"

Why did the test go away?

Over the decades, the physical fitness test drew increasing criticism for its negative impact on mental health. Many students found it an exercise in humiliation in front of their peers, fueling concerns about body image from a young age.

Critics also doubted the test's effectiveness, saying its task-specific, one-size-fits-all nature was not conducive to making individual progress towards a healthier lifestyle. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows that the adult obesity rate rose from about 13% in 1960 to about 34% in 2008, during the rough window the test was in effect.

The Obama administration phased out the fitness test after the 2012-2013 school year, replacing it with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program. The voluntary program provides resources to schools for assessing and recognizing youth fitness, shifting its emphasis from athleticism to overall health.

Many schools do that using the FitnessGram Assessment, which was developed by the Kenneth H. Cooper Institute at Texas Tech University and evaluates criteria like aerobic capacity, flexibility, body composition and muscular strength.

While specifics about Trump's revamped Presidential Fitness Test are still scarce, the educators NPR spoke with hope it will continue to prioritize that kind of health-related fitness over specific skills.

They would like to see the test include robust resources for the teachers who will be implementing and collecting data from it. And they hope that it will enable schools to spend more time allowing and encouraging kids to be active — not just to prepare for the test, but to form lifelong habits.

"A fitness assessment is just to let you know where you are," Faerber said. "It's not the end. It's the beginning of changing."

Ricardson says it will likely take years to see whether the new test is working, because of the amount of individual and population-level data required. And, she notes, fitness is just one avenue for addressing childhood obesity, along with things like nutrition, sleep and stress.

"I think the biggest thing is that right now we have child fitness at the forefront," she adds. "And that is what we need to be focusing on: How do we help kids get to where we want them to be, less about the test and more about how we get them there."
Copyright 2025 NPR

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed significant changes to Head Start, the nation's early education program for children from low-income families. The move would diminish the program's federal standards and give states and parents more control.

"We have 1,600 Head Start providers across the country," Alex Adams, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' assistant secretary for family support, said in a call with reporters. "And one-size-fits-all mandates from Washington cannot fully account for the realities facing these 1,600 grantees."

Head Start not only provides preschool and childcare, but also meals and support services for qualifying families. It now serves more than 700,000 kids each year from birth to age 5.

Since its launch in 1965, the $12 billion HHS program has, for the most part, enjoyed bipartisan support. Lawmakers often cite it as a success — including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during the call with reporters announcing these changes. But in recent years, some conservatives have criticized Head Start, saying it wastes money and fails to have a lasting impact on students.

Aiming to cut costs

The new proposal would limit the amount of money Head Start centers can spend on administrative overhead, from a 15% cap to 5%. This change should save the government $2.2 billion, Adams said, which it plans to reinvest in the program. The goal is to create 200,000 more spots for children, he said.

To get those costs down, the administration said it proposes cutting regulations and "compliance-driven activities," according to a press release. Similarly, they are shifting decisions about several standards — such as student-teacher ratios, education requirements, background checks and transportation practices — back to states.

Childcare providers are not sold on the proposal.

"If we look at the previous actions of the administration, what they have done is not in favor of expanding the program," said Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, senior vice president with Start Early, an Illinois-based Head Start partner.

"Is it enough to just bring kids in the door if we're not actually giving kids and families what they need?"

Sanchez Fuentes said administrative costs are not only things like payroll and day-to-day operations, but also help fill gaps in care. "If you, for example, have children with disabilities you [can use] some of those funds to pay for additional special services or staff with specialties who could come in and support kids."

The administration's proposal also says parents are children's primary teachers and seeks to bring in more parent opinions on "structure and curriculum" into the classrooms and emphasizes nutrition and exercise.

Loosening the standards

Head Start's current standards are laid out in a detailed 133-page guide. The manual is used not only by the program's centers, but also by many unaffiliated private childcare centers across the country.

These standards include safety guidelines, spell out who is eligible for Head Start and provide detailed rules — such as the requirement that kids in the program brush their teeth once daily with fluoride toothpaste.

Erica Phillips, the executive director for the National Association for Family Child Care, said about 10% of her members are Early Head Start childcare partners, while the rest are home-based providers around the country.

"The Head Start performance standards were a consistent … evidence-based set of standards," she said. "It can be helpful to have a nationally recognized benchmark."

Phillips said her organization will be on the lookout for variations across states. She said she worries "quality is now dependent on your ZIP code or on your geography."

The Trump administration sees it differently.

"Flexibility is permission. It's not a mandate," Adams said. "The opportunity for these programs to make a different decision does not necessarily mean they must make a different decision."

The changes did not come as a complete surprise: The conservative Heritage Foundation has long criticized the program, saying it "doesn't work." In Project 2025, the foundation's policy blueprint that the Trump administration has taken many cues from, the message is clear — eliminate Head Start.

Advocates see what they characterize as the erosion of quality and decrease in standards as the first step in dismantling the program.

A long runway

Thursday's announcement came in the form of a notice of proposed rulemaking, or NPRM. It kicks off a lengthy, formalized process of public comment and talks with stakeholders. It could be six months to a year before any new standards take effect.

"I just really want folks to know Head Start is open," said Tommy Sheridan, deputy director at the National Head Start Association (NHSA), a nonprofit that advocates for the program. "The quality of Head Start children and families truly comes from the people that are running Head Start programs. Those folks are going to be the same. They're going to be able to do that."

The administration says the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register on Friday and be open to public comment for 60 days.

Edited by: Natalie Escobar
Copyright 2026 NPR

A recent report from Feeding America shows food insecurity increased year over year between 2022 and 2024. Advocates say today’s reality could be much worse.

The report published last week showed that about 1 in 6 kids in Orange County experienced food insecurity in 2024 — that’s up 27% from the year before.

For some advocates, the report published last week was not surprising.

“With the SNAP benefits being reduced and the persistent inflation, particularly food inflation and energy inflation, and the lack of wages keeping up, something's got to give,” LaVal Brewer, president and CEO at South County Outreach, said.

Experts say the snapshot of food insecurity in Orange County could tell us more about today’s needs.

Who else did the report capture? 

Overall, 1 in 8 O.C. residents were food insecure in 2024 — up 6% from the year before.

The problem also disproportionately affected communities of color. According to the report, 29% of Black residents and 18% of Latinos in Orange County experienced food insecurity.

Nearly half of people experiencing food insecurity have incomes too high to qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

What does it mean to be food insecure? 

Food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal will come from. A lot of factors can lead to this, like low or inconsistent income, access to nutritious foods and the cost of living.

Claudia Bonilla Keller, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, told LAist some people might not doubt that they’ll have access to food, but they might not know what they’re having for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What does this report tell us about today? 

The findings from this report were recorded in 2024, before the federal government made changes to food programs, like SNAP. Experts say food insecurity today is likely much worse and worsening.

“Since the sunsetting of the COVID-era benefits, the onset of inflation and the high price of fuel, and now changes to the safety net, what we've seen is a constant downward,” Keller said.

The report is compiled annually using data from national survey responses, local unemployment rates, and median incomes across all U.S. counties.

What to know about hunger 

Keller said food insecurity ebbs and flows throughout the year, but spikes in the summer.

“But for families with children, we know that it spikes in the summer, also at the end of the year, for the long holiday breaks when students lose access to federally reimbursed meals,” Keller said. “Those meals can be two, even three, that families depend on to feed their kids.”

Bill Bracken is the founder and executive director of Bracken’s Kitchen — a nonprofit that specializes in food rescue, culinary training and feeding the community.

In the summer, he said, children suffer the most, and the same can be said for some college students.

“We just happened to walk past a student who saw our logo on our uniforms and stopped and thanked us so much because he recognized the logo from the meals he gets from the (UCI) Food Hub,” Bracken said. “He's so grateful and just happy that we're able to provide something that he can pop in the microwave and eat right away.”

Nevertheless, like hunger, food waste is also at an all-time high.

“That's the sad part,” Bracken told LAist. “With all the need, we're still wasting more food than ever before. We're going to rescue more food this year than we ever have, and we'll produce more meals than we ever have.”

When information is collected again, Brewer said, the numbers will be significantly worse, especially for those who no longer qualify for food benefits.

“Those people who were not spending money on food because they were receiving a benefit from the federal government, from our tax dollars, no longer have that support,” Brewer said. “It's not like those people just suddenly earned more money to be able to cover their food costs.”

Rent, mortgage, car notes, and child care are non-negotiables, Brewer added, “so you're going to be food insecure because that's something you can actually manage and control.”