Fitnessgram Guidelines and Resources
Fitness testing can be an important part of a quality physical education program if it is done right. View the resources on this page to help you determine when and how testing should be administered.
- A Short Rant About Fitness Tests in #PhysEd and the Aim of Being Healthy and Active
- Are Fitness Appraisals a Part of a QPE Program?
- Are We Grading Student Skills or Parent Choices?
- Episode 16: Rethinking Fitness Testing (podcast)
- Fitness Assessment with Ben Landers (podcast)
- Fitness Testing in Physical Education: Helpful or Harmful?
- Fitness Testing: Should We?
- Should We Be Using Fitness Testing in Schools?
- Why It’s Time to Reconsider Fitness Testing in Health and Physical Education
Research on Fitness Testing in PE
- A Challenge to Fitness Testing in Primary Schools
- A Lasting Impression: A Pedagogical Perspective on Youth Fitness Testing
- Do Fitness Test Performances Predict Students’ Attitudes and Emotions toward Physical Education?
- Effect of School-Based Body Mass Index Reporting in California Public Schools
- Finnish Students’ Enjoyment and Anxiety Levels During Fitness Testing Classes
- Fitness Testing in Physical Education: A Misdirected effort in Promoting Healthy Lifestyles and Physical Activity
- Statewide Physical Fitness Testing: A BIG Waist or a BIG Waste
- Teachers' Use of Fitness Tests in School-Based Physical Education Programs
- The Responsible Use of Youth Fitness Testing to Enhance Student Motivation, Enjoyment, and Performance
- Weight Measurements in School: Setting and Student Comfort
SHAPE America Appropriate Practices
- 1.6.2 Lessons/activities are adapted for overweight students (e.g., distance and pace runs are made more appropriate). Students are encouraged to undertake appropriate levels of activity for their own improvement.
- 3.4.1 Health-related components provide the focus for fitness activities. Skill related components of fitness are emphasized in their relation to skill development.
- 3.4.2 The physical educator helps students interpret and use assessment data to set goals and to develop a lifelong fitness plan.
- 4.3.1 Physical educators use fitness assessment as part of the ongoing process of helping students understand, enjoy, improve and/or maintain their physical fitness and well-being (e.g., students set goals for improvement that are revisited during the school year), not for grading.
- 4.3.2 As part of an ongoing physical education program, students are prepared physically in each fitness component so that they can complete the assessments safely.
- 4.4.1 Physical educators make every effort to create testing situations that are private, nonthreatening, educational and encouraging.
- 4.4.2 Physical educators encourage students to avoid comparisons with others and, instead, use the results as a catalyst for personal improvement.
- 4.5.1 Test results are shared privately with students and their parents/ guardians as a tool for developing personal goals and strategies.
Additional Appropriate Practices
- Demonstrate the right way and the wrong way for each test.
- Provide students with practice opportunities for each test and reflect on form.
- Use the class results to modify the curriculum as needed.
Fitnessgram Guidelines
- 4 Ways to Make Fitnessgram Fun
- Appropriate and Inappropriate Practices Related to Fitness Testing
- Fitnessgram Directions (Easy PE)
- How Should Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Students be Entered into the Software
- How Student Voice and Agency Can Transform Fitness Testing Into Fitness Education
- PACER Remixes (Hip Hop Public Health)
- Practical Guidelines for Valid and Reliable Youth Fitness Testing
- The Responsible Use of Youth Fitness Testing to Enhance Student Motivation, Enjoyment, and Performance
- Tips for the Pacer Test
- Tips for Using Physical Education Fitness Testing Results