Yantacaw Walks: Measuring Success

Many of our impressions of the success of Yantacaw Walks so far come from observations and anecdotes, such as:

• The roads leading to Yantacaw School that used to be choked with cars during peak dropoff times are now clear.

This is one of the main roads that leads to Yantacaw School during morning dropoff. Before Yantacaw Walks began, there would be a line of traffic and cars parked end-to-end on both sides of the street.

• There are now waves of children with parents and groups of friends walking to and from school every day. Our crossing guards are enjoying many more customers.

Scores of children walk to and from school every day since Yantacaw Walks began. In the past, the numbers were far fewer, especially in the morning.

• Our calls for creativity have been met with terrific contributions, and parents and children have devised their own creative projects to express their support and enthusiasm for walking to school.

The Yantacaw Walks Walk-to-School Handbook is a collection of drawings, photos, poems and even a t-shirt design and comic strip created by students and families to illustrate key principles of safe walking and driving.

The sneaker parade is a project organized by one of our fantastic parents.

Siblings make a sneaker portrait together.

Sneaker sculptures is another project organized by one of our amazing parents.

Some of the colorful sneaker sculptures.

• We’ve had some very nice press coverage:

Nutley Journal features Yantacaw Walks as its June 5th cover story.

Nutley Journal: Yantacaw Walks in Nutley

NorthJersey.com: With Temperatures Rising, It’s the Perfect Time to Walk

NorthJersey.com: Nutley Pilot Program

NorthJersey.com: Less Exercise

Yantacaw Walks also has some quantitative data in hand, and more that we’re gathering:

• More than half of our 450 students have pledged to walk to and/or from school up to five days/week.

• Through our Classroom Challenge, every class logs its walks to/from school on a daily basis. The average number of walks/week (max 10) among the leading classes for Week 6 of the contest: Grade K: 7.53 | Grade 1: 5.63 | Grade 2: 5.83 | Grade 3: 6.55 | Grade 4: 8.00 | Grade 5: 7.05 | Grade 6: 7.50

Our online parent survey (just launching) will gather data about the number of walks before and since Yantacaw Walks began and also give us insight on reasons some don’t walk to school.

Yantacaw Walks Parent Survey is administered online through SurveyMonkey with the option to complete it in print.

While we’re proud of our successes, we recognize that the true challenge lies ahead in sustaining the commitment to walking that this pilot project has begun.

To follow our progress, visit Yantacaw Walks on Facebook.