Failed to scale: Embracing the challenge of scaling in early childhood

In recent years, citizens and lawmakers have become increasingly enthusiastic about adopting evidence-based policies and programs. Social scientists have delivered evidence of countless interventions that positively impact peoples lives. And yet, most programs, when expanded, have not delivered the dramatic societal impacts promised. This is especially true in the field of early childhood. Research suggests that high-quality early childhood programs (those serving children from birth through age five) have the potential to reduce the inequities that plague our nation and rob too many children of opportunityand that they can deliver a 13% return on investment in the process. Despite the research and evidence, however, few programs have followed through and delivered on this promise. In order to reap the individual and economic benefits of early childhood programs, researchers and practitioners must figure out how to take these programs from small-scale experiments and implement them at scale in a way that enables population-level impacts. This chapter serves as an introduction to the book as a whole, which examines some of the most critical questions of our time related to scaling evidence-based programs in early childhood.