Fitness testing in schools

Assessing student achievement

One of the main reasons for testing fitness is to assess an individual’s achievement. Using fitness tests as one method of student assessment is common practice in many schools. But are school-administered fitness tests valid and reliable indicators of student achievement in PDHPE? Does our
attempt to find out whether students are fitter actually work against other outcomes of PDHPE?

Thinking it through

1. Do you use fitness tests in your PDHPE program?
2. If so, what tests do you use?
3. When do you use them?
4. Why do you use them?
5. What do you do with the data?
6. What are students’ reactions to fitness testing?
7. Do these reactions vary with age and sex?

To test or not to test? This is the question.

Two of the major problems of using fitness tests in the classroom are the issues of validity and reliability. Validity refers to the honesty of the test, the degree to which the assessment method
measures what it’s intended to measure. Reliability refers to the degree to which repeated measurements give the same result.

A range of valid tests are available for measuring health-related fitness. While many tests are sophisticated and expensive, others are available which can be easily administered in the school
situation. For example, the Australian Fitness Education Award (ACHPER, 1996) and the NSW Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey, 1997 include valid tests of health-related fitness. It is a matter of identifying what components you want to test and then finding a valid test for them.

Reliability is more the issue when fitness testing occurs in schools. This is because there are so many variables which can affect whether measurements made on one occasion will be replicated on another occasion. Consider some of these factors which can affect the reliability of fitness testing in schools:

The characteristics of the students:

Factors such as student motivation, good days versus bad days, fatigue or the presence of observers, such as peers or students of the opposite sex, will affect students’ results. Children’s levels of aerobic capacity, strength and flexibility fluctuate greatly as they grow and develop in the primary school years. Because of this, it is recommended that primary school students’ results on fitness tests should not be used for assessing their achievement. Similarly, students’ results on fitness tests should not be relied upon as a major source of evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of school PDHPE programs.

The characteristics of the testing situation:

Issues such as environmental conditions, including the temperature, wind, and time of day, and class organisation, including opportunity for warming up and instructions given to the students, may affect the reliability of the data.

The characteristics of the test:

The length or time of the test, the efficiency of the test, the difficulty of administering the test, the number of students, or any biases of the test, such as the issue of gender, will impact on the reliability of results.

The characteristics of the measurement process:

Factors such as the measuring instrument, errors in measurement or recording, and the use of students in measuring and recording will impact on the reliability of results. For example, the reliability of skinfold measurements taken in the school situation is questionable, given the need for calibrated calipers and the inaccuracies of administering them.

The characteristics of the testers:

Consider the level of competencies of the testers, their motivation, their confidence in testing and their familiarity with the instruments and testing procedures. Given the number of factors that can
affect the reliability of the data, fitness tests need to be used with some caution in assessing students’ achievement and progress. The results of fitness tests can play a role in assessing students’ achievement in PDHPE. However, these results need to be incorporated into the broader PDHPE context. The results of fitness testing should be only a small component of the information collected to make a judgement about a student’s overall achievement in PDHPE.

Thinking it through

1. What is the place of fitness testing in your PDHPE program?
2. How much emphasis do you place on the use of fitness test results in assessing students?
3. What do you do with the data?
4. How are the data recorded? Where is this information kept?
5. Do students use the data? How?

Choosing an appropriate means of comparison

Another part of this picture is the question of the basis on which you are determining students’ progress. What standards should you use to judge the“quality” of a student’s achievement? There are two different ways of reporting the results of health-related fitness. A normative standard shows the relative performance of an individual in relation to other students on the same test. A criterion-referenced standard sets a predetermined value on a test result which is considered to be “good” or “desirable” or “adequate”. Currently there are no criterionreferenced, or established acceptable, standards of performance on health-related fitness tests for children and youth. What this means is that we really can’t say what level of achievement represents good or acceptable performance. The NSW Schools Fitness and Physical Activity Survey, 1997 and the Australian Fitness Education Award (ACHPER, 1996) report on normative standards for health-related fitness, in that they show the relative performance of individuals in relation to others on the same test. Both suggest the 30th percentile as a fairly arbitrary value of what is an achievable goal for all students. You can use the 30th percentiles reported in both these documents as the goal for all students to work towards, and provide extra encouragement and support to help students below the 30th percentile. But you need to recognise that these values are arbitrary. “It is intended as a method of providing a standard that might be achieved by most children and youth without discouraging them” (NSW Department of Education and Training, 1997, p. 21).

“But my students like finding out about their fitness levels and comparing themselves with others.” This may be a common comment from many of you. You may feel that your units on fitness testing twice a year motivate students, and that the students enjoy comparing their results with others of the same age and sex. However, it is important that the results of fitness tests are not used to compare the performance of individual students with others in the state or against each other in the class. Making comparisons with other students or establishing league tables result in turning students off physical activity rather than turning them on. Our aim is to encourage children to be more physically active, not to turn them off activity.

Consider the issue of measuring weight and body composition.

Measuring children’s weight in class is a highly sensitive issue and is not recommended. Many variables act on children’s weight as they grow and change, especially through the years of puberty. Measuring height and weight may make some young people uncomfortable and selfconscious. Comparing individual students with others of their sex and age may raise concerns about weight or body shape that may not have existed previously. If you think about it, by measuring weight, we are actually working against what we are trying to do in other parts of PDHPE as we teach students to question and challenge society’s obsession with body image.

For similar reasons, skinfold testing has no real place in schools, other than perhaps as a teaching and learning tool in the senior years or in elective classes in PDHPE. Taking skinfold readings often leads to unreliable results and introduces the issue of privacy. Also consider how your students respond to fitness testing. Does it motivate them to try harder and encourage them to be more active outside school? Are the results public, so that there are comparisons between students? Do the active students in your classes enjoy testing and do the inactive ones turn off? It is important that you work out what it is you actually want to test, why you
want to test this and what you want to do with the data.

Thinking it through

Select a class at random and reflect on the following questions.

1. What type of students enjoy doing the fitness tests in your class?
2. What percentage of the class would these students make up?
3. Have you discussed how the motivated students feel about fitness testing?
4. What type of students do you know dislike fitness testing?
5. How do they react?
6. Have you discussed fitness testing with these students?
7. What are some strategies for collecting fitness data that you could use to motivate all
students in your class?

You will probably find that the students most motivated by the concept of fitness testing are those who already have positive attitudes to physical activity and participate regularly outside school hours. These students will probably continue to participate in physical activity throughout their lifetime. Unfortunately, it is the students who are not so intrinsically motivated about activity that are most affected. Making these students perform a 1.6 kilometre run or similar test is more likely to turn them off physical activity rather than turn them on. Putting these students in a position where their results are public and their performance on tests is public will also have the same effect. It is to this group of students that we should be directing most of our attention, encouraging and supporting them in participating in physical activity. Fitness testing may serve only to further alienate this group.

Some key messages

Remember these key messages about the use of fitness tests for assessing students’ achievement:

Reconsider your use of fitness tests if you are in a primary school.
Measuring students’ weight is not recommended.
Skinfold measurements should not be taken, unless it is on a voluntary basis and is used as a teaching and learning tool for senior students.
Results of health-related fitness tests should not be used to compare the performance of individual students with others.
Don’t rely on the results of fitness tests as the only source of evidence for making a judgement about students’ achievement.
It is more appropriate that tests of health-related fitness be used as a way of encouraging students to develop and monitor their own personal fitness.

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