Scaling Success: Opportunities and Challenges in Scaling a Local Youth Development Program

Abstract

Low socioeconomic status students have lower rates of high school and college graduation, resulting in lost income-earning potential and in perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Tall Oaks Kids has created youth development programming that disrupts this cycle. In its efforts to scale, it has moved from a single city and site to multiple cities and sites. It is refining centralized support structures through the establishment of a national office. This study used the lens of Coburn’s (2003) conception of scale as a framework for examining TOK’s growth to look beyond the number of students enrolled, to answer questions about scaling outcomes in the areas of depth, spread, sustainability and ownership, and the scaling processes, in culture, program, leadership, and organization.