Albany

Stash the dodgeball and get out your No. 2 pencils: Gym class can now be added to the list of lessons that require New York's students to take standardized written tests.

The written gym tests start as early as kindergarten. In Albany, teachers read questions to the youngest students, who circle an illustration with their chosen answer. In Saratoga, eighth-graders answer multiple-choice questions about the various positions in a softball game, or about the rules of football.

This is not to suggest that schools have abandoned physical activity in physical education class. But districts statewide are under new mandates to measure teacher performance — and gym teachers aren't excused from that particular exercise.

The tests are part of the Annual Professional Performance Reviews that schools implemented in earnest last year.

Most of the publicity — as well as considerable controversy — surrounding the performance reviews has focused on the math and English exams, which can include standardized tests. There's more wiggle room for the gym tests.

State education officials stress that school districts can develop their own ways of scoring gym teachers, although they, like other teachers, are ultimately classified in one of four categories: highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective.

State officials stress there's no single way to gauge a gym teacher's effectiveness, and tests are just one piece of the assessment puzzle.

"We encourage local school districts to test only as much as necessary," said Education Department spokesman Jonathan Burman.

The idea, said state School Boards Association spokesman David Albert, is to lay out what kids should be learning in gym class at the various grade levels, and to show whether they're learning something between the beginning and the end of the academic year.

For now, some schools have started with the brief written exams but eventually want to test the kids on actual activities. "We're moving toward a blend of both cognitive and psychomotor," said Shenendehowa schools spokeswoman Kelly Defeciani.

For this school year, the district is sticking to the cognitive or written tests.

Gym teachers, while not dodging their responsibility, say they have a problem with being judged by how well their kids do on physical tests.

"We are not proponents of giving physical tests" for performance reviews, said Colleen Corsi, executive director of the state Association for Health, Physical Education and Dance.

Part of the problem, she explained, is the lack of time to get kids in shape or to perfect their softball swing or tennis serve.

While students in grades K-6 are supposed to get at least 120 minutes a week of physical education, budget cuts and other time pressures — including the time taken up by, yes, testing — means that many students receive considerably less.

These topics will be under discussion this week at the association's convention at the Turning Stone Resort Casino.

Not all of the questions on standardized phys ed tests have to focus on sports. Students also can be quizzed on nutrition-related concepts such as body mass index, which can help show if someone is overweight.

Will kids at Shenendehowa and other districts eventually be tested on whether their volleyball serve gets faster between September and June? Or how far they can kick a soccer ball, or execute a jump shot?

That remains to be seen.

One potential testing template can be found with the President's Challenge, formerly known as the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which has suggested activities on its website. They include the shuttle run, which involves running back and forth between lines that are 10 yards apart, modified sit-ups known as "curlups," and running or walking for a mile.

Mostly, Corsi says, her members want to keep their students moving. "We teach them the value of physical activity and movement," she said.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU