PLT4M’s Approach To Fitness Testing In Physical Education Moreover, finding simple and easy tests to administer and collect information can allow testing not to feel like it is bringing your physical education program to a screeching halt. While there might be different physical fitness assessments that are age or experience specific, identifying some foundational tests that students can continue to do for multiple years can be a sustainable way to get everyone on the same page. Some simple steps allow middle school fitness testing and high school fitness testing standards to connect throughout a student’s entire fitness education journey. This leads to many students feeling like their progress is meaningless.Ī Sustainable Approach To Fitness Testing In Physical EducationĪligning fitness standards in your school or district doesn’t have to create headaches. For example, a student may have improved their mile time by over a minute, and while that is a big personal improvement, based on their time they could still be placed in a low percentile compared to their peers. Students are given a percentile rank that often makes them feel like a failure. Historically, students have been compared to their peers, both within their school and across the country. And because many PE teachers retest throughout the year, the time adds up! Often, PE teachers are left spending hours entering and logging data. Past just doing the tests, collecting and storing data is an additional challenge with fitness testing. And because teachers want fitness testing to paint a complete picture of physical fitness, cramming all the tests into one period can be stressful! But with only one PE teacher in the class, it can be burdensome to make sure students are doing all the tests correctly. Often, PE teachers opt to do all fitness assessments in one class period. Schools often face the challenge of conducting fitness testing for hundreds, sometimes thousands of students. Three big challenges schools face with fitness testing include: 1) Administering Tests, 2) Collecting and Storing Data, 3) Contextualizing Results For Students While school fitness testing aims to measure and assess students’ overall physical fitness, it doesn’t come without its challenges. This test had a more extensive myriad of testing that included: 1) The Pacer, 2) One Mile Run, 3) Percent Body Fat, 4) Body Mass Index, 5) Curl-up, 6) Trunk Lift, 7) Push-up, 8) Flexed Arm Hang, 9) Modified Pull Up, 10) Back Saver Sit-and-Reach, 11)Shoulder Stretch.Īs school districts collected a large swath of fitness test results, though, they now faced challenges of what to do with all the data. In 1982, the Fitnessgram fitness test was created by the Cooper Institute. The initial fitness test collected 6 test scores for middle and high school students: 1) Pull-Ups, 2) Sit-Ups, 3) Shuttle Run, 4) Standing Broad Jump, 5) 50 Yard Dash, 6) Softball Throw For Distance.Īs years passed from the first formation of the presidential youth fitness program, new iterations of physical fitness testing arose. Physical fitness tests in schools are not new! As far back as the early 20th century, when the threat of war loomed over the country, the Presidential Fitness Test was enacted and became a staple of physical education programs. History of Physical Fitness Tests In Schools
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