Thanks to efforts by President Trump, Alaska will soon reinstitute the more traditional, performance-based Presidential Physical Fitness Test to challenge and inspire students.
Last year, Trump signed an executive order reestablishing the longstanding Presidential Physical Fitness Test, which was abandoned by President Obama in 2012 over concerns that its objective standards discouraged children who were in poor physical shape and unable to achieve the benchmarks.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama replaced the older test with a less rigorous program that emphasized personal, subjective goals over objective accomplishments, while aiming to be more inclusive of “diverse” body types.
At the time, the U.S. Department of Health described the change as moving “away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.”
Obama’s Presidential Youth Fitness Program never came close to the reach or popularity of the older Presidential Physical Fitness Award, which ran for nearly half a century with hundreds of thousands of American students successfully earning the coveted patches and certificates from 1966 to 2012.
The traditional program included a timed mile run, shuttle run, sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups or flexed-arm hang, and sit-and-reach. Trump’s revived program does away with the shuttle run and sit-and-reach, while implementing three categories.
— Core strength: Either one-minute curl-ups or plank hold
— Cardio: Either a one-mile run or 20-meter PACER / beep test
— Upper body: Either right-angle push-ups or pull-ups
Students who score at or above the 85th percentile in at least one event in each of the three categories will receive a Presidential Physical Fitness award. There is also an elite national award tier as well as a certificate of participation for anyone who finishes the test.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy praised the rollout of the revived award program and announced that the state plans to utilize federal funds from Alaska’s Rural Health Transformation Program to strengthen physical education, student wellness, and physical fitness opportunities in schools across the state.
“The passage of this executive order allows Alaskan students to refocus on the benefits of health and well-being,” Dunleavy stated on Aug. 25. “With the assistance of the Departments of Health and Education and Early Development, I am proud to move this initiative forward and help better the future of health of Alaska.”
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Rollout of the new program will begin by providing Alaska school districts that wish to participate with the resources and training necessary to successfully implement physical testing in the 2027–28 school year.
“This is an exciting step in returning to a priority of health and fitness of our student population,” said Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Deena Bishop. “With this emphasis placed back on well-being, our students will be afforded the opportunity to both learn and live well.”
