The sad irony of the testing era is that our zeal to improve children's academic performance has led to a decline in children's health, and childhood obesity rates have risen to dangerously high rates. Paradoxically, some of the school policies adopted to help improve test scores may reduce children's chances of performing well by contributing to their ill health. Clearly, children in poverty, racial and ethnic minorities, and girls in general, have an increased risk of obesity, which might negatively affect their academic achievement.