Students are tested so often in their regular general classes, I like the word baseline. A collection of data in the beginning of the year and revisited more often than just the spring. Students will find the "fitness test" less threatening or less ways to fake their fall scores if they know they will revisit the test more often and see positive results from participating in the appropriate PE curriculum.

In Ohio we have to write SLO (student learning objectives). Tied to this is a student growth component which leads to an atmosphere that fosters students trying to skew their results.

In our department we conduct the Beep Test twice a quarter as well as a twelve minute run and a push-up and sit-up test. For the Beep Test we make it out of 10 points. In order to receive full credit the boys must complete level 14, and the girls must complete level 12. So, we subtract 4 from whatever level the boys last complete and 2 for the girls. Therefore, if a student decides that they do not want to try on that particular day they could essentially lose points. Some students have ended up with a -4 out of 10! It has really worked for us, and the students have seemed pretty motivated to get that 10/10.

I teach at the elementary level and fitness test with my fourth and fifth graders. I have created a data collection system I call sportifolos. Sportifolos are a collect of data of varies fitness outcomes that each student compiles over the course of the year. The students can see where they were in the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year. As far as fitness testing effort, I have used Fitnessgram program that determines if the student is in their healthy zone based on the gender and age. It appears my students do not seem to "fake" pre- test as they are still trying to get into the healthy zone range. As the year goes on the child might have birthday, so their healthy zone standard might change as well.

We have developed goal-setting worksheets that the students fill out before their first test for term 1. After we test for term 1, the students write down their actual score. The students compare their actual score to their goal that they set. If they did not achieve their goal, they have to write down how they can improve it and what can they do outside of school to help improve their test score. They have to try to improve or come close to improving for the next three terms. If students do not give good effort it will effect their grades, they will lost points.

We also use a rubric for each test. There are seven different test that the students perform in. The student's performance is based on a scale 1-4, which four being the best. We total the grade out of 28 points, which if a student receives a four for each test, they will receive 28 out of 28.

Students are graded two different ways. First, they are graded on effort. Second, they are graded on performance.

I teach high school and we have been testing fitness levels for about 10 years now (sit-ups, push-ups, 200 meter run, 1 mile run and standing broad jump. Over the past 2 years our state has adopted several new evaluation systems which flow directly into what we do when we evaluated fitness. We test our students’ day 1 of each of the 4 quarters, our quarters are broken into 9 week sessions. Our daily warm-up helps the students maintain or develop strength and stamina so the student can be successful when we test them. Warm up consists of 6 min jog (3 min jog, 1 min walk, and 2 min advanced jog) each day with a specific exercise for that day: core, lower body strength or upper body strength.
With obesity and child diabetes on the rise we feel as a department that the student is getting at least 15 min of quality exercise 5 days a week before they go into their activity. When we test the students at the end of each quarter our numbers in 13-14 showed an increase in stamina and strength in 70% of our students.

I will speak on one test that we specifically do and that is the PACER test. We conduct a pre and post test in the PACER. All of the student usually participate but some are a little reluctant. We have an incentive for the students to reach on the post test. If they reach a certain number of PACER lengths, the students will earn a special shirt that they get to wear in PE class and around school. At the middle school level this is a very cool way to get students excited about taking the test again.

We test our classes twice a year at the elementary and middle school and only the same concepts as you (muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory endurance, and body composition). I feel that my students do try their best every time, but I could have some that do not. I try to show the students their FitnessGram results from the previous test as a way to motivate them to try and beat their previous score. I also show the students the minimum requirement needed for them to be in the healthy fit zone. The problem with showing the minimum requirement needed is that I feel a small amount of students will be happy with just getting the minimum requirement even though they can perform at a higher level.

When fitness testing your students how often do you complete the tests? How do you handle kids that try to "sway" the test by not trying their hardest? I am proud to say that most of my students seem to give it their best effort in both the pre and post test, but there are still a few of the less motivated ones that will give a very poor effort on the pre test to ensure "success" on the post test. I only test on health-related fitness concepts (muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory endurance, and body composition).

Hi Melanie,

My school fitness tests in the fall and spring. Fortunately at the elementary level we dont have kids that sway the test. However, for kids that dont try their hardest we try to use positive encouragement to motivate them. We dont use a pre and post test but just a fall and spring test. Most of the time we see better scores in the endurance portions in the fall rather than the spring because of the high level of physical activity that the kids get in the summer. But during the year we have the kids practice several activities that improve their cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and flexibility.

I fitness test my class once a year. My seventh grade has class everyday for a semester and my eighth grade has it for a nine weeks. Our state requires us to report the fitness test overall results to the state at the end of the year. I do get the students height, weight, BMI at the beginning of the class and at the end and discuss with them their results. I also give the pacer test at the beginning and at the end of the class. They do try their best in class, I encourage then to beat their old score even if it is by one!