Presidential Fitness Testing: A Case for Illinois Schools

National Significance of Childhood Fitness

Obesity and other lifestyle-related health problems have become increasingly serious epidemics affecting America's population in recent years. Perhaps the most alarming statistics can be found in the rates among the country's children. According to data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an estimated 16.9% of children and adolescents between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese, and the prevalence is increasing (CDC, 2011). With similar trends present in childhood diabetes rates, these results are certainly staggering and call for major concern. Nevertheless, many continue to believe that a child's "free will" is culpable, noting children's propensities for unhealthy food and drink consumption as well as decreases in physical activity. However, many education professionals believe that this trend can be reversed through an active approach to fitness education and evaluation on behalf of schools. In taking this approach, many schools have adopted the Presidential Fitness Testing system.

By embracing and implementing a universal system of elementary fitness evaluation, the United States would also be gaining ground on its international peers, many of whom have already integrated such collective approaches. Research has shown that nations using universal fitness-testing regimes have historically performed better than those that have chosen to forgo such options. Thus the American Presidential Fitness Testing system becomes an all the more attractive option.

This particular fitness-testing framework utilizes a wide array of traditional and non-traditional fitness indicators to accurately determine a child's fitness level. By setting specific targets for children based upon their ages, the program helps create a universally applicable means of reporting data and achieving cumulative goals. Though even despite its noble goals and far-reaching potential, many contemporary fitness educators continue to forgo this option, citing its perceived outdatedness. While the origins of this national program date back to the mid-1950s when President Eisenhower created the President's Council on Youth and Fitness, many modernizing changes have since been made to ensure the lasting relevance of the system. A 2008 article in The New York Times described some of the latest advances in the Presidential Fitness Testing program, including expansions now being offered to adults (Parker, 2008). Given that national health problems affect all segments of the population, the adaptability of this system is certainly commendable.

Beginning in the early 1950s, there was significant concern arising from the physical fitness of American students relative to their European peers. This matter was brought to the public forum when New York University professor Dr. Hans Kraus published a report entitled "Muscular Fitness and Health," in which he claimed that the prosperous state of the American economy had caused citizens to begin rapidly losing muscle tone (Kraus, 1953). Unlike previous generations, the great majority of Americans were now utilizing convenient means of public transportation and factory machinery, and were generally forgoing almost all forms of manual labor. To compensate for these changing times, Kraus repeatedly stressed the need for Americans to engage in daily exercise. After publishing several other reports on this topic and even creating a muscular fitness test of his own, Dr. Kraus was asked to present the culmination of his findings at a national convention of the American Medical Association in 1954. This provided Kraus with a platform on which he was able to report his findings to the American public and the mainstream media.

History of the Presidential Fitness Program

Shortly after this event, Kraus and several of his associates were invited to a luncheon at the White House by President Eisenhower to further discuss their findings and recommendations for a collective solution. The casual encounter ultimately prompted a larger conference comprised of several government leaders and health professionals, the result of which was a recommendation to focus on the fitness of America's youth. In keeping with this goal, President Eisenhower established the President's Council on Youth Fitness with the hope that this organization would become a catalyst for the education, motivation, and encouragement of local communities and American citizens in achieving more active lifestyles.

President Kennedy successfully took over the reins in this cumulative battle for national fitness when he was elected in the early 1960s. By making physical fitness policy a key aspect of his campaign and subsequent presidency, Kennedy was able to clearly integrate his views on physical education into the pre-established national system. Using the pre-existent governmental structures, Kennedy advocated a more active approach in which he supported "youth fitness surveys, the national publishing of fitness information, and the offering of technical advice to schools and communities about how to improve physical fitness not only for youth but for Americans of all ages" (The Department of Health and Human Services, 2011, p. 3). Even though the laws of this period did not allow the federal government to implement a national fitness program, President Kennedy and his administration were able to persuade a majority of states to adopt the guidelines of the Presidential Council.

Several other presidents since John F. Kennedy have taken active roles in furthering the youth fitness cause in the United States. However, with wars and several other nationally threatening issues arising over the following decades, physical education initiatives were often left on the back burner. Nevertheless, several presidents — most notably Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and William Clinton — accomplished a great deal in the battle to improve America's health and fitness (The Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). Despite this massive governmental effort spanning more than a half-century, the United States never regained much ground with respect to the fitness levels of its European counterparts (The Department of Health and Human Services, 2011).

The specific purpose of this proposal at the local level is to examine the current and historical trends in the physical education of children in the state of Illinois. This includes the means utilized to prepare and assess a student's physical fitness level, as well as the environment in which such education and evaluation takes place. Fiscal crises in the state of Illinois have caused the slashing of educational budgets throughout the state, and physical education departments have suffered a great deal. This reality has ultimately caused significant concern as to whether administrators and teaching professionals are now more prone to taking shortcuts in the fitness training and testing of students. While Presidential Fitness Testing is stated as the collective norm, budget constraints have caused a decline in governmental enforcement and an equal increase in local control over school fitness-testing regimes. As a result, several Illinois districts have been accused of slipshod methodology in assessing fitness levels. Recent reports have shown that multiple Chicago districts have begun to completely abandon mandated Presidential Fitness Testing standards and simply calculate the student's Body Mass Index (BMI) in order to determine his or her physical education grade (Mannion, 2001). Such practices illustrate a lack of educational dedication on behalf of those districts, and such tactics have been shown to have direct negative effects on students' self-image and social behavior.

As the data above suggests, Illinois school districts are discarding the time-honored fitness testing techniques — like the Presidential Fitness Test — that have been shown to elicit cumulative performance improvements. Consequently, obesity rates in this state are surging while fitness-testing standards are becoming increasingly relaxed. Although schools do not bear full responsibility for growing childhood obesity rates, such institutions can certainly play a more active role in educating students about fitness. Moreover, the simplistic yet far-reaching nature of the Presidential Physical Fitness program allows schools to integrate this system without making massive expenditures on gym equipment or workout facilities. In fact, the curriculum — comprised of activities such as pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, endurance runs, and agility runs — is designed to utilize the pre-existing facilities of almost every school. Therefore, the vast majority of schools are capable of reliably adhering to this proven plan without jeopardizing their annual budget.