What Does It Take to Scale Up Innovations? An Examination of Teach For America, Harlem Children’s Zone, and the Knowledge is Power Program

Policy Brief - Mar 14, 2013

Author(s) - Ben Levin, University of Toronto

What Does It Take to Scale Up Innovations? A new brief investigates whether innovations are scalable and able to make a difference widely, using three commonly proposed innovations as examples. Ben Levin, University of Toronto, analyzes Teach For America (TFA), KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), and the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), which has already spawned the U.S. Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods program. Levin determined that there are barriers and opportunities to the scalability of these programs. The brief cautions policymakers to avoid the temptation of proclaiming small-scale innovative programs as solutions to large-scale problems in education.