Criterion-referenced standards for youth health-related fitness tests: a tutorial.

A new development in the testing of physical fitness of youth is the use of criterion-referenced standards (CRS). Although three national youth health-related physical fitness (HRPF) tests currently have CRS, a detailed description of the procedures used in their development has not been published nor have the standards been validated. Consequently, the scientific basis of these standards has been questioned. The purposes of this tutorial are (a) to discuss briefly issues related to the development of CRS for HRPF tests, (b) to provide a detailed description of procedures used in development of mile run/walk test CRS as an example, and (c) to illustrate how these standards can be validated. The objective is to stimulate discussion and critical evaluation of CRS for youth HRPF tests.