Currently, members of the PEL laboratory are conducting research to examine the impact and sustainability of the Director of Physical Activity (DPA) certification program on changes in school physical activity policies, teacher efficacy and engagement, and physical activity behaviors of underserved 9-14 year-old children. As an integral piece of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance’s Let’s Move in School initiative, the DPA certification program provides physical education teachers with the knowledge, skills, and attitude to champion and spearhead the implementation of a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP).
​
From now until December 2014, Carson and his research team will be coordinating the DPA certification of 250 current teachers throughout Louisiana and the U.S. and tracking the CSPAP efforts within each respective school for one academic year post training. Data will be collected via surveys, accelerometers, student focus group interviews, and individual interviews with certified DPA teachers and school administrators. Support for this research is provided in large part by two research grants (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research program; National Association for Sport and Physical Education research grant program), along with in-kind contributions from the Louisiana Department of Education, and collaborations with colleagues from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Kentucky.



As a result of this work, the team has since been commissioned by ALR and Partnership for a Healthier America to develop a tool to assess the quality of youth physical activity programming in U.S. based on the seven guiding practices described in Nike’s 2012 Designed to Move report (www.designedtomove.org).