Reestablishing Fitness Testing in Schools: Motivating or Counterproductive?

The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition has been charged with re-investing in the health of our nation’s youth, an imperative that is thought to impact nothing less than our national security and economic viability. A recent Presidential Executive Order reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test which will be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services with the support of the Secretary of Education. Though voluntary at the Federal level, the state of Minnesota has enacted legislation to make the testing mandatory and other states may follow. This editorial reviews the new fitness testing components and argues for changes to the approach that would make testing more closely aligned with basic tenets of health promotion.