Ensuring Effective Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices

In education, the field of implementation science is a discipline dedicated to supporting educators’ use of evidence-based practices (EPBs) to improve school and student outcomes. As highlighted in previous columns in this series, school teams must thoughtfully consider how EBPs align with the school/district core values and fit the local context (Kittelman et al., 2020), how school teaming can enhance implementation of EBPs (Kittelman et al., 2021), and what activities are needed to support implementation of EBPs at different stages (Ward et al., 2021). In this column, we describe how school teams and educators can use implementation drivers to implement EBPs with high implementation fidelity (as they are designed to be implemented; Caroll et al., 2007; Sanetti & Collier-Meek, 2019). We wish to draw attention to the important work of researchers and practitioners from the National Technical Assistance Center on the State Implementation and Scale-Up of Evidence-Based Practices (SISEP; https://sisep.fpg.unc.edu) within the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN; https://nirn.fpg.unc.edu) and the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI; https://ncsi.wested.org).