For me, I feel like none of these tests are perfect. There are elements of each test that are good, but none of the whole tests truly meet our needs. It is very frustrating. Who creates these tests? Do they try them out with actual kids??

I'm in agreement with a lot of you. Presidental Fitness Testing is outdated, with a couple of tests being completely unfunctional and set up for failure. There's nothing worse than watching some kid hang on the pull up bar. I know there are modifications, but how much time are you really wanting to invest into this. Our school uses a card that is filed for students over their K-12 years, so that does become a motivator sometimes, espeically in the mile and shuttle run. I would have to say that testing really only serves a purpose if we're going to use that data for something.

we use the presidential tests as well, or at least some of them. We use the presidential tests as our main test and have added a few other tests as well from other sources. I feel that there arent any perfect cookie cutter tests that suit the needs of all. Some of the tests are valid and reliable and some may not be so much. Throughout the district we try to stay as uniform as possible with the tests so that the test data can be evaluated.

I feel it is o.k. We are using what we call a fitness gram. I feel it is somewhat better. We test for the pacer test, curl up, and push ups. We then get the student's height and weight and then put it in the software which will give us a B.M.I. read out. The problem is how to get the student's height and weight. Our district has seen some concern from parents becuase they are afraid the information may become public and may cause thier children issues in the future.

We Use the Presidential Fitness Test as well, and record our results in Fitness Tracker software. Student scores are exported to a PDF and saved for the end of the year. At the end they plug their scores into a Powerpoint template, including graphing, pictures ect. They update these portfolios every year.
We also give out shirts to students who score National, or Presidential on all 5 test. The shirts only cost us about 3.50 each.
We work on improving each area by doing "Expert Group" rotations (teaching ways to improve while sharing students.) We also do Muscular Monday, Touch your toes Tuesday, Wow Im fast Wednesday, ect..
Our kids actually get excited testing, and often redo test until they reach their goal.

The presidential fitness test offers some good assessment for students but I have added a few and create a "school fitness test" AKA the "penguin test". We do all the presidential test but added a few more...

- The Beep test aka the Pacer test - endurance assesssment/speed (fitness gram)
-Vertical Jump-leg power
-Broad Jump-leg power
-100 meter (wow do they love this) - speed

We do the Pres Fitness Test also, but with a twist. We do a pre-test (beginning of semester) and a post-test (end of semester). By doing this pre/post, we also look at/record the improvement of each test for every student. When giving them an actual grade for fitness, our department has decided to take the top three test results for each student. Seems like it is working for us.

I also do something similar to this but I look at self-improvement. If a student shows growth and improvement throughout the semester their grade is reflective of this.

We have switched to Fitnessgram. I do like the PACER test because it is a better measure of cardio-respiratory endurance. For the mile, a student needs to know the strategy of pacing themselves or they will not meet their maximum achievement. You could have a super fit kid that sprints the first half mile but then has to walk the rest because of a poor strategy (even though you taught the strategy).

Fitnessgram does 90 degree push ups, partial curls ups, sit and reach, shoulder stretch, trunk lift, and BMI. Curl ups and push ups is tough because we have their peers evaluate them and if their evaluator doesn't do a good job, the performer can get a better score than someone with more strength that did them correctly. Also, comparing weight and height isn't always a good indicator of body composition but most schools can't afford the technology to give an accurate assessment of body composition.