FitnessGram
What is FitnessGram?
The principal mission of the FitnessGram program is to promote lifelong physical activity and attainment of health related physical fitness. FitnessGram is based on the ‘HELP Philosophy’ (“Health is for Everyone for a Lifetime – and it’s Personal). This position statement describes uses of FitnessGram/ActivityGram assessment that are consistent with the HELP philosophy.
Program Goals and Guiding Principles
The primary goal of FitnessGram is to build cognitive and behavioral skills that will facilitate learning about physical activity and physical fitness concepts and increase the likelihood that students will adopt lifetime patterns of physical activity. To that end, the FitnessGram assessments (and reports) are designed to provide teachers, children, and parents with information about physical fitness relative to established health related standards.
Emphasis in instruction should be placed on helping students learn how to complete assessments, interpret results, and plan physical activity programs to maintain or improve their fitness. Aggregate results can also have value for school and district level tracking and evaluation if used appropriately. The following recommendations summarize appropriate and inappropriate uses of FitnessGram and ActivityGram assessments for school applications.
Fitness components assessed include: aerobic capacity, upper body strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility. All fourth through eighth graders are assessed at least twice a year during their physical education class.
Interpreting Performance on Physical Fitness Assessments
While the assessments in the FitnessGram have good reliability and validity, the results of the tests should still be used as only rough indicators. A number of factors can influence fitness scores including maturation and development can have a major impact on a child’s fitness scores. A child’s fitness level and response to training are also determined to a great degree by their genetics. Some children will improve performance more rapidly than others. Some children will be able to perform at a much higher level than others regardless of training levels. Rather than emphasize a child’s fitness scores, it is more important to emphasize involvement in regular physical activity.