A Comparative Analysis of Performance by the Madelia Public School Students on the Kraus-Weber Test and the AAHPER Fitness Test

Physical fitness has always been an important part of an athletic program, and it has always been highly regarded for our servicemen during war years. But people who were concerned with our overall fitness brought out the fact that this fitness decreases markedly after an athletic season and after a war. This report by Dr. Kraus attired our nation’s leaders to such an extent that President Eisenhower created a council on Youth Fitness and had numerous meetings to discuss the fitness problem and how it could be improved. The American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation joined in the movement for fitness and among other things formulated a youth fitness test. This test was administered on a national level to a random sampling of school children from the fifth through the twelfth grade. This test tested several aspects of motor fitness and indicated the average level of fitness of youth throughout the nation. This study is limited to grades five to eleven in the Madelia Public Schools, Madelia, Minnesota. Grade five and six had no required physical education, but had a recess period in the morning and afternoon at which time they took part in physical activity