Introduction
Joseph P. Winnick, Ed.D.
Francis X. Short, P.E.D.
State University of New York, College at Brockport
The testing and assessment of the physical fitness of school-aged youngsters in the United States has been going on for several decades. Originally these tests strictly focused upon identifying physical fitness status and comparing the results of youngsters with others (norm-referenced). Beginning in the 1970s, there became considerable interest in health-related tests of physical fitness in which results attained by youngsters are compared with criteria representing positive health (criterion-referenced) rather than simply on score comparisons with others. For example, the results related to running one mile or percentage of body fat are compared with levels representing positive health rather than with the scores of others – which may or may not reflect positive levels of health.
The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) published its first health-related test in 1980 and in 1996 endorsed the health-related physical fitness test entitled FITNESSGRAM developed by the Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research (CIAR, 1992) as its recommended test of health-related physical fitness for school-aged youngsters. This endorsement continues today and is particularly important since AAHPERD is America’s largest professional group of physical educators and is very influential on practices in schools throughout the United States.
Although attention has been and continues to be given to the development of health-related physical fitness tests for nondisabled youngsters, until recently no comprehensive health-related criterion-referenced tests had been developed for use with youngsters with disabilities. Between 1993 and 1998, the U.S. Department of Education funded Project Target to establish a health-related test of physical fitness for youths (ages 10-17) with disabilities. This project resulted in the development of the Brockport Physical Fitness Test (BPFT) – a criterion-referenced health-related test of physical fitness appropriate for use with youngsters with disabilities. The test recommends test items and health-related criterion-referenced standards for youngsters with intellectual disability, spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, blindness, congenital anomalies and amputations and recommends a process to develop tests appropriate for youngsters with other disabilities and health-related needs.
How is Health-Related Physical Fitness Defined?
In the BPFT, health-related fitness refers to those components of fitness affected by habitual physical activity and related to health status. It is defined as a state characterized by (a) an ability to perform and sustain daily activities and (b) demonstration of traits or capacities associated with a low risk of premature development of diseases and conditions related to movement. Health-related components of fitness adopted for this test include aerobic functioning, body composition, and musculoskeletal functioning. In the BPFT, test items are selected to measure these components of fitness and standards related to health are developed for each of the tests items to evaluate fitness. The premise in regard to assessment is that if children and youth reach the standards associated with the test items representing these components of physical fitness, they will have attained levels of physical fitness that are appropriate for health and which will enable them to enter adulthood with the protection that physical fitness affords as a buffer to the natural degeneration that comes with middle age and beyond.
What is the Essence of Health on the Brockport Test?
For the BPFT, health is based on two general constructs – physiological health and functional health. Physiological health is related to the organic well-being of the individual – like appropriate levels of aerobic functioning or body composition. Functional health is related to the physical capability of the individual – like the ability to perform and sustain physical activities of daily living. Both constructs contribute to one’s ability to enjoy life and to withstand challenges, and both provide indices of good health that serve as a basis for health-related physical fitness.
How are Physical Fitness, Physical Activity, and Health-Related Physical Fitness Related?
Physical fitness refers to a set of attributes that people have or achieve that relate to the ability to perform physical activity (Caspersen, Powell, & Christenson, 1985). These attributes include components of fitness that may or may not relate to health-related physical fitness. Health-related fitness relates to those components of fitness that are affected by habitual physical activity and relate to health status. As mentioned above, they include aerobic functioning, body composition, and musculoskeletal functioning. The BPFT includes test items that measure the extent to which these attributes are achieved. Physical activity consists of bodily movement produced by skeletal muscle. The primary role of physical activity is the conditioning benefit it provides in developing health-related physical fitness. Types of activities include exercise, sport, training, dance, and play.
What Health-Related Needs are Associated with the BPFT?
As mentioned earlier, health-related physical fitness tests are developed in response to the health needs of the individual that are or may be affected by physical activity. The health-related needs or concerns that are associated with the BPFT are grouped within the three components of health-related fitness. The first component, aerobic functioning, permits a person to sustain large-muscle, dynamic, moderate-to high-intensity activity for prolonged periods of time. Acceptable levels of aerobic functioning are associated with a reduced risk of high blood pressure, obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes, some forms of cancer, the inability to sustain activity, and other health problems in adults. A second component of health-related physical fitness, body composition, refers to the degree of leanness or fatness of the body. Maintaining appropriate body composition is critical in preventing the onset of obesity which is associated with increased coronary heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
The third component of health-related fitness combines three traditional components of physical fitness: muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility or range or motion. Appropriate levels of these attributes are necessary to maintain good posture, prevent lower back pain, live independently, and participate in leisure activity. For example, in regard to persons with disabilities, the ability to perform activities of daily living and live independently includes the ability to lift and transfer the body from a wheelchair, the ability to propel a wheelchair and overcome architectural barriers, and perform functional tasks requiring flexibility and range of motion. To a great extent, the health-related needs of persons with and without disabilities overlap. However, individuals with disabilities have, at times, unique health-related needs which need to be addressed.
What Test Items are on the BPFT?
The Brockport Physical Fitness test battery includes the 27 test items presented in Table I. However, a battery for one individual or category of disability generally includes four to six items. Many test items in the battery might be considered traditional. Other items might be considered nontraditional and have either been adopted or developed to meet abilities of youngsters with selected disabilities. The decision as to which test items are recommended for a particular individual is personalized following the steps listed below:
- Identify and select health-related concerns of importance to the youngster.
- Establish a desired personalized fitness profile with (or for, as necessary) the youngster.
- Select components and subcomponents of physical fitness to be assessed.
- Select test items to measure selected fitness components and subcomponents.
- Select health-related criterion-referenced standards to evaluate physical fitness.
It is important to realize that the test instructional manual and accompanying software program recommends test items for each of the major categories of disabilities based on this five-step personalized process. Thus, users of the test may simply adopt the test items recommended as a part of the test. On the other hand, users may change the number and nature of test items to be selected for a youngster. If they do, it is recommended that the steps presented above be followed.
To illustrate in more detail, a test item selection guide for youngsters with spinal cord injuries appears in Table 2. In the table it can be seen that test items recommended for a particular individual are based upon the individual’s subclassification and age. Subclassifications are based upon level of involvement and method of ambulation. Test items designated as R are first choice recommendations for test items; those designated as 0 are acceptable but second choice alternative test items; those designated as TA mean that test items may need to be task analyzed if used and standards to evaluate them are individualized. (When an activity is “task-analyzed,” it is broken down into its component parts and then each of those parts is evaluated separately.) In the example presented in Table 2, an individual with low-level quadriplegia would be administered four test items. In the BPFT, test selection guides are recommended for each of the major categories addressed by the test.
What Standards are Used to Evaluate Physical Fitness?
Once test items have been selected and administered to measure physical fitness, the scores or results are compared to standards representing levels of fitness. In the BPFT, standards are expressed as general or specific. A general standard is one associated with the general population and a specific standard has been adjusted in some way to account for the effects of an impairment upon performance. Both are health-related and both may relate to physiological and/or functional health. General standards may be applied to the general population as well as to youngsters with specific disabilities. Specific standards are only provided for selected test items for individuals with disabilities.
When general standards are used, two levels generally are available: minimal and preferred. A minimal standard is considered an acceptable score and a preferred standard is meant to convey a good level of fitness that is more desirable. There are no levels associated with specific standards. In a few instances there is only one level of a general standard, i.e., a single general standard that is established to evaluate test performance. Where a single general standard is used, it conveys a good level of fitness.
Although not necessarily health-related, individualized standards may be developed in connection with the BPFT. An individualized standard represents a desired level of attainment set by a teacher or leader for and/or with the student which is designed to take the student from present level of performance toward a specific or general health-related standard. Individualized standards are typically recommended when objectives for improvement are needed but specific or general standards are not reasonably attainable.
Standards that have been established in connection with the BPFT have been developed using a variety of sources. Standards were attained from the Prudential FlTNESSGRAM, data collected and analyzed as part of Project Target, logic, and expert opinion. Persons interested in detailed information regarding the development of standards for the BPFT are encouraged to consult technical information provided by the authors (Winnick & Short, 1999).
How are Results Presented and Interpreted?
It is certainly possible to administer tests and evaluate the scores obtained solely from the BPFT test manual. In this case, teachers or program leaders can compare each score made by various students to the criterion-referenced standards provided for each test in the battery. The interpretation, of course, is based on these comparisons and may include the observation, perhaps, that a student has a good level of fitness on one test (i.e., met the preferred general standard), and an acceptable level of fitness on a second test (i.e., met the minimal general standard), but has a need to improve on a third test (i.e., failed to meet any of the appropriate standards). How the teacher chooses to present these results to parents and other appropriate individuals when the test manual is used to assess student performance is a matter of personal choice.
Teachers and program leaders also may use the BPFT computer software program, Fitness Challenge, to record, interpret, and present results. Fitness Challenge provides a standardized score sheet that includes the student’s scores on all of the previously selected test items, the available standards based on gender, age, and disability, and the opportunity to enter a “personal goal” for the student for each test item. In the example provided in Table 3, the teacher typed in the test scores the student, Hank, made for each of the tests he took, as well as a personal goal for each. The computer program supplied the units of measure and the three columns of standards associated with those tests.
Once the scores and personal goals are recorded, Fitness Challenge can produce a report card for each member of the class or group. The report card for Hank is displayed in Table 4. The report card provides some background information about the test as well as comments the teacher entered pertaining to Hank’s performance. It also presents Hank’s test results in a bar graph format. In this example, his current test scores are compared to a) his previous test scores, b) the personal goals established by his teacher, and c) two standards used to define “healthy fitness levels.” The “better” number associated with the healthy fitness level always corresponds to the preferred general standard. The “good” number associated with the healthy fitness level is either the minimal general standard or, if one is available for the particular test item, the specific standard for a particular disability. When students are unable to achieve the healthy fitness level, their performance “needs improvement.” Teachers also may enter comments as appropriate for any of the test items. If the teacher chooses not to enter any comments, the computer provides a description of the test item instead.
Can the BPFT be Used in Inclusive Physical Education Settings?
Yes. When the BPFT was being developed, one consideration in selecting test items was that preference would be given to test items that are or could be taken by both youngsters with and without disabilities and that appear in typical physical fitness test batteries appropriate for nondisabled youngsters. This is acceptable since youngsters with disabilities are often able to perform one or more of the same test items as youngsters in the general population. Teachers in inclusive settings are encouraged to administer the same test items from their regular test battery to both nondisabled youngsters and youngsters with disabilities. (In fact, teachers may choose to use the BPFT as their “regular test battery” since it includes tests and standards appropriate for students both with and without disabilities.) There may be times, however, when some or all test items or standards to evaluate physical fitness will be different for a youngster with a disability. In these instances, parts or all of the BPFT may be substituted for or supplement test batteries used with nondisabled youngsters. If the educational setting that is appropriate for an individual with a disability has been determined to be an inclusive one, every effort should be made to administer test items to all students at the same time in an integrated setting.
How does the BPFT Relate to the Development of Individualized Education Programs?
It is very important to recognize that results on the BPFT may be easily coordinated with the federally mandated individualized education program (IEP) for children with disabilities. Based on test results, unique needs are exemplified if children are unable to meet minimal standards regarding health-related physical fitness. These unique needs can be viewed as annual goals in the IEP. Test scores obtained by children can serve as entries under the present level of performance section of the IEP, information relevant to setting objectives, and criteria for the evaluation of health-related physical fitness.
Can the BPFT be Used for Youngsters with Severe Limitations in Physical Fitness?
The BPFT can be used for most youngsters with disabilities. However, there are instances in which the test may be inappropriate for a particular individual. For example, they may not be able to perform test items or their level of physical fitness, motivation, or understanding may be very low and result in invalid indications of fitness. In instances such as these, it may be preferable to measure their extent and nature of involvement in physical activity rather than the extent to which they attain levels of physical fitness. Another recommended strategy would be to task analyze test items so that they could be targeted, learned, and measured. Finally, the development of “rubrics” (i.e., a type of rating scale) or other alternative forms of assessment may be most appropriate. Hopefully, each of these options would eventually lead to abilities which lend themselves to the evaluation of health-related physical fitness.
What Resources are Necessary for the Administration of the Test?
Relatively speaking, only a few inexpensive materials are needed for the administration of the BPFT. Also, test item substitutions are often permitted if expense is a factor. Typical supplies needed include: stopwatch, ruler, grip dynamometer, 35-lb. barbell, seated push-up blocks, 1-lb. weight, ramp, curl-up strip, pull-up bars, skinfold caliper, height-weight scale, sit and reach apparatus, heart-rate monitor, 15-lb. dumbbell, and calibrated tapes (provided with the test kit).
What Materials are Included as a Part of the BPFT and How Can They be Obtained?
The materials available in connection with the BPFT include a test manual, a training guide, a video, and companion software. The test manual provides information on how the test was developed and how to administer the test. The training guide provides information important to developing components of physical fitness of youngsters with disabilities. The 33-minute video shows the proper techniques for conducting all the test items in the BPFT battery. The software is designed to make the administration and interpretation of the test easy. It prints out results, goals, and fitness plans for individual students, and separate reports can be generated for instructors and parents. The software also includes a technical manual that explains how the test was developed including information about the test’s validity, reliability, and attainability. Information about the materials and orders for the materials can be obtained by contacting Human Kinetics.
Who Should be Assessing the Health-Related Physical Fitness of Youngsters with Disabilities in our Schools?
Ordinarily, teachers of physical education administer health-related physical fitness tests as a part of physical education programs in schools. In some instances, it is possible that tests would be administered by physical therapists or other allied medical professionals. If tests of physical fitness are a part of the school curriculum for nondisabled children, the tests modified for youngsters with disabilities should be required for youngsters with disabilities.
What Should Parents Do to Advocate Health-Related Physical Fitness Tests in Schools?
It is most important that parents realize the value of health-related physical fitness for their children. This must be emphasized because too often parents are only focused on the academic needs which are critical for future employment and success of their child. The importance of health-related fitness to carry out activities of daily living, to become involved in active leisure-time pursuits, and to provide protection against natural degeneration that comes with middle age and beyond must be highly valued by parents and communicated by them to school authorities. Subsequently, parents need to assure that their children are receiving mandated physical education services including provisions for the assessment of health-related physical fitness. This can be enhanced by discussing these services with school authorities and insisting on these services as a part of individual education programs. Since the development of lEPs typically involves special education rather than physical education professionals, parents may need to pay particular attention to seeing that these services are provided. Finally, because the development and maintenance of physical fitness depends on involvement in a variety of well-liked activities, it is critical that skills for participation be developed in a broad-based physical education program. It must be remembered that involvement in physical activity serves as a conditioning function for the development of optimal physical fitness.