The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) is launching the Presidential Youth Fitness Program this month. The new school-based program will replace the President’s Council Youth Fitness Test, which has been implemented in schools since 1985. The Presidential Youth Fitness Program is a comprehensive program which emphasizes health over performance and uses FITNESSGRAM as the program's student fitness assessment.

While the test has evolved over the years, the President’s Council Fitness Test only measured how students performed certain activities compared to peers and reported little about students’ actual health.

Based on the latest science, the PCFSN has teamed up with leaders in the fields of physical education, fitness, and health including the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD), the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and The Cooper Institute to launch the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, a voluntary school-based program that promotes health and regular physical activity for America’s kids.

“Schools can play a critical role in inspiring a love of physical activity,” says Shellie Pfohl, Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness Sports and Nutrition, in a statement from PCFSN. “There is a growing body of evidence that suggests a link between physical activity and improved academic success.”

The Presidential Youth Fitness Program has adopted FITNESSGRAM as its assessment. FITNESSGRAM in partnership with NFL PLAY 60 is a health-related, criterion-based assessment developed by The Cooper Institute. Unlike the President’s Council Fitness Test, FITNESSGRAM helps minimize comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals for lifelong health. The assessment measures health-related fitness through a variety of items designed to assess cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. The Presidential Youth Fitness Program has also adopted Physical Best for professional development. Human Kinetics publishes FITNESSGRAM for The Cooper Institute and Physical Best for AAHPERD.

The Presidential Youth Fitness Program represents the beginning of a new era in youth fitness assessment, one that emphasizes health over performance. In addition, the program provides options for professional development and materials to help physical educators effectively implement the program. The program also provides information to help parents understand the benefits of regular activity for their children.

According to a separate statement from The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. the Presidential Youth Fitness Program provides:


  • professional development and materials from AAHPERD;

  • administration of the youth fitness recognition program by AAU; and

  • scientific and tracking expertise of CDC.

The major purpose of the Presidential Youth Fitness Program health-related fitness assessment is:


 


  • to help students understand their fitness data analysis, improve, and/or, maintain their physical well-being;         

  • to develop cognitive concepts about fitness assessment and interpretation of results; and  

  • to monitor and reinforce student learning and achievement in reaching personal fitness goals


AAHPERD CEO E. Paul Roetert, Ph.D., says “The new Presidential Youth Fitness Program will measure health-related components of fitness: aerobic capacity, muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and body composition, and provide professional development and materials to help physical educators safely and effectively implement the program. Important communications to parents will also help them better understand the benefits of physical activity for their children.

“We want every physical education teacher in this country to help children and their parents to understand the health-related fitness outcomes and to assist in the development of individual fitness plans,” says Dr. Roetert. “To keep fitness in a positive mode, children's individual fitness scores will not be used as a criteria for grading in physical education class and will be confidential between the teacher, student and parent. Through the new Presidential Youth Fitness Program, physical education teachers will have access to the necessary tools they need to help children develop healthy lifestyles that will optimize their health and educational experience beyond the school years.”

Among its first contributions to the new program, AAHPERD will coordinate a Presidential Youth Fitness Program 101:Understanding the Basics free webinar on Tuesday, September 25 at 1 pm EDT, which will be lead by Dr. Jayne Greenberg, district director of Physical Education and Health Literacy, Miami Dade County Public Schools. This will be the first of monthly free webinars about different aspects of the program that will be held this school year. All webinars will be archived.To register for the webinar, go to Presidential Youth Fitness Program.

A nonprofit professional education association, AAHPERD is committed to enhancing the quality of physical education programs in this country. A quality physical education program plays a unique role in teaching students the importance of health-related fitness, as well as developing physical competences and cognitive understanding about physical activity so that students can adopt healthy and physically active lifestyles. Purposeful measurement such as the new fitness assessment program is an appropriate component of quality physical education. For more information about a quality physical education program, visit NASPE/AAHPERD.

According to AAHPERD President, Irene Cucina, D.P.E., of Plymouth State University, “AAHPERD members throughout the country are so proud to play an important role in creating the new Presidential Youth Fitness Program with these esteemed partners. The partners' commitment, energy and resourcefulness is targeted to improving our children's health so that they are better able to learn, have higher self-esteem and are at lower risk for developing chronic disease. I am confident that an exciting new era in children's health awaits.”