Kraus–Weber test
The Kraus–Weber test (or K–W test) is a fitness test devised in the 1940's by Hans Kraus and Sonja Weber of New York Presbyterian Hospital. The poor tests results of American children versus children from European countries gained attention in the 1950's from American media and the US Government. Description of test. The Kraus–Weber test has six simple exercises and takes 90 seconds to administer. Test history. Some early studies using the Kraus–Weber test were performed by Bonnie Prudden. In 1940s and 1950s, she applied this test to students in her  conditioning classes. To her surprise the new students failed the test at 58% while the students who had been in the program failed at only 8%. Over a period of seven years, Prudden and her volunteers tested 4,458 children between the ages of 6 and 16 in the United States. The failure rate was 56.6%. While climbing in Europe, Prudden and Kraus arranged to test children in Europe. In Italy, Austria and Switzerland, the children tested exhibited an eight percent failure rate. In 1952, Prudden and Kraus began writing papers for medical and physical education journals on "Hypokinetic Disease: Role  of Inactivity in Production of Disease." At this point, popular media outlets began to cover the findings. In 1955, armed with statistics and a personal invitation to the Dwight Eisenhower White House, Prudden presented her findings on the fitness level of American public school children compared to that of their peers in Europe. The media labeled it "The Report that Shocked the President" and the "Shape of the Nation".