Taking it to scale: Evaluating the scope and reach of a community-wide initiative on early childhood

• Published in: Evaluation and program planning Vol. 31; no. 2; pp. 199 - 208
• Main Authors: Fischer, Robert L., Lalich, Nina, Coulton, Claudia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2008; Elsevier
• Series: Evaluation and Program Planning
• Subjects: Administrative data; Child Development; Child Welfare; Child, Preschool; Community based programmes; Community development; Community Education; Community Health Services - utilization; Comprehensive School Health Education; Counties; Delivery Systems; Early childhood; Early Childhood Education; Geographic Distribution; Humans; Implementation; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Matching; Medicaid - utilization; Ohio; Program Effectiveness; Program Evaluation; Program Evaluation - methods; Program scale; Service delivery; Statistical Surveys; United States; Welfare Services; Young children; United States; Ohio; Matching; Early childhood; Administrative data; Program scale
• ISSN: 0149-7189; 1873-7870
• DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2007.12.002

In implementing broad community initiatives, the ability to assess the delivery of services is a distinct challenge. Yet, understanding both the magnitude and cross-usage of services by target populations is often a precursor to effective program evaluation, program improvement and additional program planning. This research examines the extent to which a comprehensive early childhood initiative successfully reached young children and their families in a large urban county. By linking birth records and administrative datasets at the level of the individual child, the study tracks the experiences of children in respect to engagement in program services and their receipt of public benefits. The study shows both the rapid growth in programs and the reach of the program elements to the majority of newborns in the target county after 5.5 years. The research highlights the challenges of effectively using individual-level data from a variety of sources for the purposes of documenting program receipt by participants.