The Scale-Up Effect in Early Childhood and Public Policy: Why Interventions Lose Impact at Scale and What We Can Do about It

This critical volume combines theoretical and empirical work across disciplines to explore what threatens scalability-and what enables it-in the early childhood field. Authors and editors provide specific recommendations to help professionals refine and apply the science of scaling in their programs, research, and decision making.

Written by leading experts in early childhood, economics, psychology, public health, philanthropy, and more, chapters and commentaries shine light on how to effectively use experimental insights for policy purposes. The result is a comprehensive and forward-thinking guide to the challenges and possibilities of effective scaling in early childhood and beyond.

Essential reading for researchers, practitioners, funders, and policy makers alike, this book raises vital questions and provides a vision for the long-term journey to scalable evidence.

John A. List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at University of Chicago, USA and a Research Associate at the NBER. He is a Founder and Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health. List served on the Council of Economic Advisers from 2002-2003.

Dana Suskind is a pediatric otolaryngologist, Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics, and Director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program at University of Chicago, USA. Dr. Suskind is a Founder and Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health.

Lauren H. Supplee is a Senior Program Officer at the Willian T. Grant Foundation and former Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Senior Scholar in Early Childhood Research at Child Trends.