Enhancing Human Capital in Children: A Case Study on Scaling

This paper provides novel insights into the science of scaling by examining an educational mentoring program in Mexico. The analysis encompasses two independent field experiments, and seizes a unique opportunity to learn from the government's implementation of the same intervention. While the program originally implemented at scale demonstrates limited effectiveness, the introduction of a new modality with enhanced mentor training significantly improves children's outcomes. Mentor-parent interactions are found to stimulate parental engagement at the community-school level, which emerges as a critical factor for the scalability of the program. Our findings offer compelling evidence on the socially determined drivers of education interventions at scale.