Evaluation of a Community-Based Walk-to-School Program

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Topics:
Nutrition & Physical Activity for Youth | School Health

CDC and other organizations support community-based Walk-to-School (WTS) programs, which aim to increase opportunities for daily physical activity by encouraging children to walk to and from school in groups accompanied by adults. In this project, researchers are using CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health to determine if children are participating in WTS programs and, if they are, how participation is affecting their weight and physical fitness. In phase one, the evaluators are using a national registry of WTS programs to describe and categorize the programs as single day events to raise awareness, events repeated throughout the year, educational programs, activities to identify transportation problems, and programs that have led to changes in local policies or the physical environment. In phase two, the evaluators will gather in-depth information from WTS programs at 15 schools and from 5 comparison schools to measure the impact of WTS programs on children’s activity.

 

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