Fitness evaluation or humiliation? Whether the beep test should still run in Calgary phys-ed

Airdrie student Jillana Nelles says it's been a yearly occurrence since about Grade 5.

She and her classmates line up on one side of the school gymnasium, waiting for the telltale chimes of the beep test, also known as the 20-metre shuttle run.

To complete the test, students run from one side of the gym to the other, keeping up as the sound of the beeps slowly gets faster. If students can't make it to the other side of the gym before the beep, generally, they get a warning. Another miss, and they're out. 

For some, the test is a useful challenge, a way to measure their fitness gains. For Nelles, who's now in Grade 10, she says when she hears the test is coming up, she gets immediate stress and anxiety. 

"It, in my opinion, pushes kids, including myself, past their limits. And that is an unnecessary way of testing a person's fitness," she said.

"It's definitely a huge stressor as you're doing it, that you could be judged or you'll have to stop running."

The beep test is not a mandated part of Alberta's K-6 or Grade 7-12 physical education curriculum, so it's hard to pinpoint just how many schools in Calgary use it. The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) said it's up to teachers whether they want to use it as a tool in their classes.

They also choose how to assess the results — that is, whether students get an actual grade or marks for participating.

WATCH | The Calgary Police Service uses the beep test to assess applicants:

CBC Calgary spoke to six current or recently graduated junior and high school students — as well as two parents of current or former students — and all but one said they'd taken the beep test at school within the last few years. 

Some of the students didn't think it was a useful part of gym class — outside of sports teams or other extracurricular activities. 

Shelly Russell-Mayhew, the director of the body image research lab at the University of Calgary, agrees. She researches building healthy school communities.

"[The beep test] can work entirely against this notion that moving our bodies is something that should give us joy," she said.

The test has its place with more elite athletes, but since the test is done as a group, it can feel pretty competitive, she said.