To determine whether scaling decisions might account for fadeout of impacts in early education interventions, we reanalyze data from a well-known early mathematics RCT intervention that showed substantial fadeout in the two years after the intervention ended. We examine how various order-preserving transformations of the scale affect the relative mathematics achievement of the control and experimental groups by age. Although fadeout was robust to most transformations, we were able to eliminate or even reverse fadeout by emphasizing differences in scores near typical levels of first-graders while treating differences elsewhere as unimportant. Such a transformation lowers treatment effects at preschool age and raises them in first grade, relative to the original scale. The findings suggest substantial implications for interpreting the effects of educational interventions.

为了确定扩展决策是否可以解释早期干预中影响的消失，我们重新分析了来自著名的早期数学RCT干预的数据，该数据显示干预结束后的两年中出现了显着的减弱。我们研究了按年龄划分的各种顺序保持变换如何影响对照组和实验组的相对数学成绩。尽管淡入淡出对于大多数转换都具有鲁棒性，但是我们能够通过强调接近一年级生的典型水平的分数差异，同时将其他地方的差异视为不重要来消除甚至反转淡出。相对于原始规模，这种转变降低了学龄前儿童的治疗效果，并提高了一年级的治疗效果。