Resources

Presentations and Workshops

Science and Practice of Implementation
Presented by Dean Fixsen on June 4th, 2009

Update on SISEP and Scaling Up- TA & D Conference, March 2009
A presentation made at the 2009 TA & D Leveraging Resources Conference sponsored by the Department of Education in Washington, DC. This presentation provided a brief update on the progress being made in scaling up implementation capacity in the four States associated with the OSEP SISEP Center.

SISEP: Using EBPs to Help all Students
A presentation made at the 2008 TA & D Leveraging Resources Conference sponsored by the Department of Education in Washington, DC. This presentation provided a brief overview of the plan for scaling up implementation capacity in the states associated with the new OSEP SISEP Center.

Scaling Up Briefs

Implementation: The Missing Link Between Research and Practice
There is a great deal of discussion about the need to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure. New roads, bridges, schools, and public buildings need to be built using the latest in green technology. Current infrastructure needs to be repaired and retrofitted. This brief makes the case that our human services infrastructure for effective implementation requires a similar investment so that effective programs and practices can be widely adopted and used to produce socially significant outcomes. In the United States, the federal government spends over $95 billion a year to fund research to help create new interventions and over $1.6 trillion a year to support services to citizens (Clancy, 2006). However, research results are not being used with sufficient quantity and quality to impact human services and have not provided the intended benefits to consumers and communities.

Scaling-Up Evidence-Based Practices in Education- February 2009 #1
Students cannot benefit from education practices they do not experience. While this seems obvious (and it is), education systems have yet to develop the capacity to help all teachers learn to make good use of evidence-based practices that enhance the quality of education for all students. The purpose of this Brief is to provide a framework that state leadership teams and others can use to develop the capacity to make effective, statewide, and sustained use of evidence-based practices and other innovations.

Intensive Technical Assistance- February 2009 #2
Technical Assistance (TA) is designed to build the capacity of individuals and organizations to achieve desired outcomes. During the past decade technical assistance, like many educational initiatives, has been reconceptualized as a multi-tiered approach along a continuum from basic to intensive.

Readiness For Change- February 2009 #3
The purpose of this Brief is to define the variables a state or large district leadership team may wish to consider as they determine if they are “ready” to invest in the scaling-up of an innovation in education. As defined here, “scaling up” means that at least 60% of the students who could benefit from an innovation have access to that innovation in schools across a State. Creating benefits to students on a comprehensive scale requires considerable change by teachers, building staff, district staff, and state leaders. “Readiness” is defined as a developmental point at which a person, organization, or system has the capacity and willingness to engage in a particular activity. Creating readiness for change is a critical component of both initiating and scaling up the use of evidence-based practices and other innovations in education.

Implementing Scaling Up

In this section we ask the reader to step back and take a broader view of the State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center activities. In this broader view it becomes clear that “scaling up” is the “innovation” that is being implemented in each State. Viewed in this way, we expect the science and practice of implementation to apply at the State level just as it does at the teacher, school, and district levels. Given this broader view, the State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center is chronicling its own behavior and outcomes using the Implementation Stages as a guide (see Implementation: The Missing Link Between Research and Practice on this website or click on the NIRN logo at the bottom of this page to find out more about implementation science and practice). The literature is clear that implementation is a process that takes two to four years to complete in most organizations. It is a recursive process with steps that are focused on achieving benefits for students and their families, schools and districts, education systems, and society. It appears there are six functional stages of implementation: exploration, installation, initial implementation, full implementation, innovation, and sustainability. The stages are not linear as each impacts the other in complex ways. For example, sustainability factors are very much a part of exploration; and full implementation directly impacts sustainability. Or, an organization may move from full implementation back to initial implementation in the midst of unusually high levels of staff turnover.

Exploration Stage: After the State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center was funded, the first several months were devoted to deciding on the State selection criteria and methods (see the Just for States section of this website). Implementation science and practice suggest that “buy in” and a commitment to make full use of an innovation are based on securing sufficient information for States to judge the potential merits of the innovation, the risks involved in using the innovation, strategies for managing risks, and the degree to which the innovation might satisfy a recognized need. The State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center approach to the Exploration Stage and some data resulting from the process are provided in the document Exploration Stage of Scaling Up.

Installation Stage: Once the States were selected, the State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center began the Installation Stage activities with the four active scaling up States. The Installation Stage of Implementation is preparation for the eventual use of an innovation. In this Stage, people, funding, structures, roles, functions, and so on are secured and prepared to begin to use the innovation in the Initial Implementation Stage. With scaling up, the Installation Stage requires the full participation of the State Management Team since this is the beginning of system change. The State Implementation and Scaling up Evidence-based Practices Center approach to the Installation Stage and some lessons learned from the process can be found in the document Installation Stage of Scaling Up.

Reports and Publications

Concept Paper
Outlines the strategy and activities that will be conducted by the SISEP Center to provide scaling-up state implementation capacity to support evidence-based practices designed to improve students’ academic achievement and behavioral health.

Scale-up Annotated Bibliography
A brief overview of the scale-up literature as it relates to system transformation, capacity development, implementation science and practice, school reform, high fidelity implementation, innovation zones, and usability testing.