Guidance for New PFT Coordinators
A new guide, Guidance for New PFT Coordinators, is available on the California Department of Education's (CDE) Web site. The guide is designed to assist new California Physical Fitness Test (PFT) coordinators with administering the PFT as well as collecting, reporting, and interpreting the PFT results.
FITNESSGRAM® 8.3
Human Kinetics released an update to the FITNESSGRAM® software. The 8.3 version update makes the following enhancements and/or improvements to the software:
- Upgrades all existing versions of the program (i.e., 8.0, 8.0.1, and 8.2) to the 8.3 version.
- Fixes the problem of services stopping intermittently on the District install.
- Allows for reports to be generated using Adobe Reader 8.
- Allows for the ability to select student data (i.e., names and IDs) to be de-identified or not per needs of research partner.
- Allows for additional ethnicity codes to meet the State of California’s PFT reporting requirements.
- Makes enhancements to the generation of the FITNESSGRAM® Statistical and Achievement of Standards reports.
The FITNESSGRAM® 8.3 update is only available via the Web download at the Human Kinetics Web site (Outside Source). Enter “FITNESSGRAM 8.3 Updater” in the search field. Click on the FITNESSGRAM 8.3 Updater link, and you will be taken to a page with an explanation of the update and the link for downloading.
If you have questions concerning the FITNESSGRAM® 8.3 update, contact Human Kinetics’ Technical Support staff by phone at 217-351-5076 Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. (central standard time) or by e-mail at support@hkusa.com.
Update on Defining “Passing” for the Purposes of the Two-Year Exemption from High School Physical Education Courses
With the passing of Senate Bill 601 (Torlakson), Education Code Section 51241(b)(1) has been revised as follows:
The governing board of a school district or the office of the county superintendent of schools of a county may, with the consent of a pupil, if the pupil has passed the physical performance test administered in the 9th grade pursuant to Section 60800, may grant the pupil an exemption from courses in physical education for two years any time during grades 10 to 12, inclusive, if the pupil has met satisfactorily any five of the six standards of the physical performance test administered in grade 9 pursuant to Section 60800.
Students in grades ten, eleven, and twelve may participate in the PFT to qualify for the two-year exemption from high school physical education courses. The designated testing window for all students is February 1 through May 31 each year. School districts do not report the PFT results from students in grades ten, eleven, or twelve to Educational Data Systems (EDS), the current state PFT contractor. Furthermore, there are no other state reporting requirements related to students who participate in the PFT for purposes of eligibility for the two-year exemption.
For additional information regarding student exemptions from high school physical education courses, refer to the Questions and Answers Regarding the FITNESSGRAM® located on the CDE's Physical Fitness Test Web site.
More Information
Questions regarding the PFT should be directed to Carrie Strong-Thompson at 916-319-0341 or by e-mail at pft@cde.ca.gov.
