The failure of better science to readily produce better services has led to increasing interest in the science and practice of implementation. The results of recent reviews of implementation literature and best practices are summarized in this article. Two frameworks related to implementation stages and core implementation components are described and presented as critical links in the science to service chain. It is posited that careful attention to these frameworks can more rapidly advance research and practice in this complex and fascinating area.

F or the past several decades, considerable scientific and policy interest and research activity have focused on developing evidence-based practices and programs, evidence-informed practices and programs, and other innovations intended to produce better outcomes for exceptional children. Past and current efforts to diffuse, translate, transport, disseminate, mandate, incentivize, and otherwise close the "science-to-service gap" have not been successful in getting the growing list of evidence-based programs routinely into practice. D. L. Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, and Wallace ( 2005) defined evidence-based programs as collections of practices that are done within known parameters (philosophy, values, ser-vice delivery structure, and treatment components) and with accountability to the consumers and funders of those practices. … Such programs, for example, may seek to integrate a number of intervention practices (e.g., social skills training, behavioral parent training, cognitive behavior therapy) within a specific service delivery setting (e.g., officebased, family-based, foster home, group home, classroom) and organizational context (e.g., hospital, school, not-for-profit community agency, business) for a given population (e.g., children with severe emotional disturbances, adults with co-occurring disorders, children at risk of developing severe conduct disorders). (p. 26) In an extensive review of the diffusion and dissemination literature, Greenhalgh, Robert,

As the number of schools implementing systemic, schoolwide positive behavior support (PBS) processes expands (nationally, at least 5,000 schools are participating), increasing attention is being paid to the efficacy of implementation. This article describes a case study of the experiences of Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project, which used a systematic process to understand barriers and facilitators to the successful implementation of schoolwide positive behavior support by schools implementing at high and low levels of fidelity, and the degree to which the project could impact barriers and facilitators. Results indicate that schools implementing with low fidelity tend to identify practical, operational barriers, whereas schools implementing with high fidelity struggle with systems issues. Both high-implementing and low-implementing schools identified the same facilitators to implementation; however, they differed in their views of which facilitators the project could impact. Implications for state PBS project activities are discussed, along with suggestions for future data collection and providing a model of data-based decision making at a macro level. 174The process of schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) includes the application of evidence-based strategies and systems to help schools increase academic performance, increase safety, decrease problem behavior, and establish positive school cultures. These strategies and systems usually include supporting school efforts to develop a team-based approach, develop data-based decisionmaking processes, identify and teach expectations and rules, develop a schoolwide reward and reinforcement system, and implement and evaluate the schoolwide plan. SWPBS approaches have expanded rapidly in the last several years, with nearly 5,000 participating schools tracked by the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (Horner, 2007). This number is likely a conservative estimate of the actual number of schools that are implementing systemic, schoolwide behavior support processes.The expansion of schoolwide or universal positive behavior support in Florida has closely paralleled the expansion of SWPBS across the country. In its first 2 years of SWPBS, the Florida Positive Behavior Support Project (FLPBS) trained 81 schools. The project trained 85 schools during 2004, and more than 100 schools in 2005. As the demand for SWPBS has increased, so have demands that the project adequately evaluate the processes and outcomes of SWPBS. Toward that end, we have done the following:

Evidence-based programs will be useful to the extent they produce benefits to individuals on a socially significant scale. It appears the combination of effective programs and effective implementation methods is required to assure consistent uses of programs and reliable benefits to children and families. To date, focus has been placed primarily on generating evidence and determining degrees of rigor required to qualify practices and programs as “evidence-based.” To be useful to society, the focus needs to shift to defining “programs” and to developing state-level infrastructures for statewide implementation of evidence-based programs and other innovations in human services. In this article, the authors explicate a framework for accomplishing these goals and discuss examples of the framework in use.