ESS 436/536 Assessment Instrument Critique Form (3 pg max ...
Name of Assessment Instrument/Test: Fitnessgram
Author(s): Marilu D. Meredith and Gregory J. Welk
Fitnessgram Reference Guide – James R. Morrow Jr. and Weimo Zhu
Most Recent Publication Date and Edition of Test: Fourth Edition © 2007
Name of Publisher: The Cooper Institute Website for Publisher:
Cost of Total Kit and Reorder of Score Sheets, etc:
Total Kit: 79.00 Reorder of Score Sheets: 61.00 (optional)
General Components/Skills Measured:
Fitnessgram is designed to measure health-related physical fitness components including cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition. It is also designed to be a tracking and recording system, both online and in paper form, that can be used to summarize individual, class, school and district progress.
Population(s) Designed for:
Fitnessgram is designed for students, grades K-12, of all genders and races, to be a tool to evaluate an individual’s physical fitness levels, record personal best performance levels, track fitness results over time, and provide group data for institutional testing (Meredith & Welk, 11). However, in the early elementary grades, K-3, it is intended only to expose children to physical fitness concepts and not be used as a tool for evaluation. It is not intended to be used for individuals with disabilities.
Norm- and/or Criterion-Referenced:
Fitnessgram is a criterion referenced test, in that the individual’s performance is evaluated against the established set of criteria for each of the physical fitness tests. For example if a 13 year old completed 25 curl ups they would fall within the healthy fitness zone, indicating that the student has a sufficient fitness level to gain important health benefits (Meredith &Welk, 59-60).
Technical (or Examiner’s) Manual(s):
The Fitnessgram Test Administration Manual is broken up into three parts. In Part One an Introduction of Fitnessgram/Activitygram, a general overview of the goals, guidelines and importance of physical fitness is discussed. Within chapter 1 the mission, goals and program components are broken down. Specifically, the program’s philosophy, H.E.L.P. or Health is available to Everyone for a Lifetime – and it’s Personal, is outlined so test administrators understand the motivation behind the test. In chapter 2 the assessment options for fitness education are discussed and the effective and appropriate uses are outlined. There is a step by step break down of the assessment process and the reader is provided with ideas on how to link Fitnessgram to a curriculum. Chapter 3 discusses options for promoting physical activity. This includes guidelines, the Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model, ideas on how to apply the model and ideas for reinforcement.
In Part Two, Fitnessgram Assessment Module, the individual content areas are broken down. Chapter 4 provides a very brief overview for test administration. This focuses on considerations for early elementary students, safety and testing individuals with disabilities. Chapter 5 covers aerobic capacity fitness tests. This includes a breakdown of the PACER test, the one mile run and the walk test. Chapter 6 focuses on body composition. The chapter explains how to do skinfold measurements, how to use the body mass index and explains the use of portable bioelectric impedance analyzers. Chapter 7 covers muscular strength, endurance and flexibility. This chapter explains the curl-up test, the trunk lift, push-up, modified pull-up, pull-up, flexed arm hang, back-saver sit and reach and the shoulder stretch. Chapter 8 goes into detail covering questions one may have about the physical activity associated with Fitnessgram. This includes a description of assessment, an explanation of administration and rationalization for completing the physical activity questions. Chapter 9 discusses how to interpret the Fitnessgram results. This includes an explanation of how criterion reference standards were derived, influence of body size and maturity on fitness and how to interpret an individual’s performance.
In Part Three, the Activitygram is outlined. Chapter 10 details the administration of Activitygram. This includes a description of what Activitygram is. Chapter 11 discusses how to interpret the results focusing on providing feedback. It also details the limitations of Activitygram.
The appendixes that follow provide examples and assessment tools for administering the test. Appendix A contains information on testing equipment. This gives information on where to purchase the equipment and directions on how to make the equipment yourself. Appendix B contains the copy masters for recording the fitness tests and possible report cards and awards to send home. These sheets can be used as a reference or can be replicated for classroom use. Appendix C contains tracking charts. These charts are broken up by gender and are to be used to track an individual’s progress throughout a physical fitness course. Appendix D contains frequently asked questions and directs the reader to the website. Appendix E is the software user manual designed to help the test administrator make full use of the Fitnessgram software on their computer or the school or district wide server.
Standardization (Normative) Procedures:
Fitnessgram utilized national fitness test data to develop percentile tables for non-disabled boys and girls of various races. The percentiles are grouped based on age and run from age 5 through 17 and older. However, the authors of the test only recommend use of percentiles for ages 10 through 17 plus. The Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) shows students and teachers ideally where students should be and is just a zone of optimal scores for a healthy individual but not a true percentile because it does not show the average as it relates to the overall population, which may or may not be unhealthy. This zone is based off of a criterion-referenced standard. These standards were determined based off of an individual’s score as compared to their overall health risk. The cutoffs for the HFZ were based on a minimum level of performance needed for reduced health risks (Morrow & Zhu, 72).
Reliability:
To establish reliability for a criterion referenced test is it important to look at how an individual scored on subsequent tests, i.e. test re-test reliability, and not how well a student compares to their peers. For the Fitnessgram to be reliable an individual needs to equally good or bad on both the first and second test. The following articles demonstrate the reliability of Fitnessgram, unless otherwise stated no other measures or results of reliability were given, “Beets and Pitetti (2006) provide an excellent example of determining the criterion-referenced reliability of the FITNESSGRAM’s PACER and 1-mile walk/run items. Hartman and Looney (2003) provide similar procedures for the FITNESSGRAM’s back-saver sit-and-reach test item. A paper by Saint Romain and Mahar (2001) illustrate the criterion-referenced reliability of the push-up and modified pull-up. A paper by Ihmels, Welk, McClain, and Schaben (2006) provides an illustration of reliability tests with body composition measures from the FITNESSGRAM (Morrow & Zhu, 73).”
Validity (Describe procedures the authors used to determine validity):
For Fitnessgram validity is determined based on, “the presence or absences of a disease, a disease risk factor or some other health measure (Morrow & Zhu, 74).” The level of risk must be associated with the fitness component so that the standard can be set. In order for this standard to be valid an individual who passes the criterion measure (PACER score) must also pass the score cut-off (Healthy Fitness Zone) (Morrow & Zhu, 75). False positives may occur when an individual passes the field test but cannot pass the minimum criterion, and false negatives may occur when an individual is not motivated enough to do well on the fitness test but is physically fit.
Objectivity or Inter Tester Reliability:
In the Fitnessgram/Activitygram Reference Guide both inter-rater reliability and intra-rater reliability are discussed. Inter-rater reliability is the ability for two different test administrators to give a test to one individual and both score the individual similarly. Intra-rater reliability refers to one test administrator’s ability to give a test to one individual multiple times and score it the same way. No results on inter-rater or intra-rater reliability are given nor are any articles referenced for results.
Scoring procedures:
For aerobic capacity, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility each test is scored quantitatively to see how long or how much a student could do given the task. For body composition a student is measured using either a skinfold measurement or body mass index. The scores are recorded on their respective sheets as denoted in appendix B. Then either the student or the teacher can go to the correct corresponding health-related fitness tracking charts to chart progress or see where the individual is compared to the healthy fitness zone (HFZ). The teacher and/or student can also log all test information on the computer and monitor progress or create reports via the software.
Accompanying Curriculum, Teaching and/or Training Manuals/Materials:
Activitygram is the preferred curriculum for Fitnessgram used to provide students with information about their daily physical activity habits. This assessment asks students to recall the amount of physical activity they experience over a three day period and the intensity with which they participated. The main propose of Activitygram is to show students just how much or how little physical activity they regularly participate in. This goes back to the H.E.L.P. philosophy making physical fitness a lifetime goal and not something that is just measured twice a year.
Special Considerations:
Fitnessgram is a fitness test and so individuals who perceive their fitness levels to be low or do not want to appear unfit in front of their peers may resist participating in the test. This test is designed to be administered within the general physical education setting, which means that most tests are being administered to all students at the same time. To remove the social stigma associated with fitness testing the test administrator should offer one on one testing to all students, not just those who they might assume want private testing. Additionally, because such a large emphasis is placed on tracking an individual’s physical fitness the test administrator must insure that the manner in which data is recorded and the way data is shared is kept confidentially. The manual suggests pairing up students to have them record the other person’s information. This is a great idea in the interest of time but does not help the stigma that already surrounds most fitness tests.
Summary narrative of strengths/advantages of instrument/test/curriculum program:
Fitnessgram is an extremely accessible fitness test and the numerous ways of reporting information to students, parents and district administrators make it a very practical option. Fitnessgram also incorporates a wide variety of technology allowing data to be recorded via personal sheets, class sheets, on a personal computer or on a district wide server. It is also a relatively inexpensive test to administer over and over again. A test administrator can purchase the kit with all of the equipment or they can create their own equipment based off the manual. Also an administrator can use the master copy sheets over and over again only incurring the cost of making copies. Finally, Fitnessgram is very easy to score because it is quantitative, other than the skinfold measurement; there is no real area of the test that is subjective and open to scorer biases.
Summary narrative of weaknesses or concerns:
The administration manual is very poorly organized; some chapters seemed to be included just because the authors needed to fill space, for example some chapters in the manual are not even a full page. Additionally, the reader must search the internet to find information on normative procedures, reliability, validity and objectivity. Once the reader has found the reference guide it does not provide concrete information about Fitnessgram instead it provides a basic overview of the terms listed above. Also, a few of the fitness tests, like the trunk lift, are often meet by the whole class achieving scores well past the cut-off for the Health Fitness Zone. This causes students to feel the test is in valid because there scores are surpassing what they have been told is the optimum level. Finally, because there are so many tests to complete the testing may need to occur over a period of several days. And because the test is supposed to be replicated multiple times the general physical education teacher may lose a lot of instructional time to assessment.
Use in adapted physical education for individuals with disabilities:
The authors of Fitnessgram strongly recommend that individuals use the Brockport Fitness Test for individuals with disabilities because that test was designed so the data gathered would fit within the Fitnessgram software. Additionally, the test creators do not want the test to be used as a tool for identification, that is as an evaluation of an individual within physical education, to evaluate teacher effectiveness or program effectiveness. They also do not recommend that the test be used for placement purposes. Teachers may use the test to influence instruction but because the test is criterion referenced the results do not indicate specific information about why an individual scored poorly, so other tests may be needed.
Practical suggestions:
As the test administrator there needs to be a motivating factor for the students taking the test to want to well. Without this the results of the test are meaningless. The authors of the test do not want Fitnessgram administered for a grade, so as the general physical educator there needs be some external motivation that is not grade related. Additionally, it would be good to do the testing one on one to eliminate individual fears of not measuring up to other students. If this cannot happen, as is likely the case, offer the test multiple times; before school, after school or during recess. But do not require that students who are uncomfortable testing in front of others come in at a time that causes them to miss a subject they enjoy; this will cause them to resent the test more and want to stop testing. Also, with Fitnessgram a test administrator can order large poster size tracking charts and post them around the school or gym. These can serve as a motivational tool or be a constant negative reminder to an unfit individual, so use tracking charts with discretion. Finally, prefill personal fitness records and other score sheets with Fitnessgram tests on the master copy before copies are made so each does not have to be hand filled.
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