ABSTRACT
Twenty years of applied research in positive psychology and this volume of excellent school-based interventions could change the education system for children. Unfortunately, a chasm exists between effective positive psychology research findings and successful school-based implementation—a chasm caused not only by ignorance of new programs but also by the lack of attention to program implementation challenges. Teachers, parents, principals, consultants, and staff members must traverse the distance between the best answer and the disturbing needs armed with state-of-the-art information about positive psychology and innovation dissemination. This chapter is about helping schools implement positive psychology principles and interventions like those in this handbook. Knowing about positive psychology programs is a necessary but insufficient guarantee of success. If merely knowing about an effective program were sufficient to cause implementation, the only challenge at hand would be information dissemination. Clearly this is not the case. Better mousetraps exist. Many unused evidence-based programs are catalogued online for ease of access (e.g., What Works Clearinghouse, National Registry of Effective Programs). The bad news remains that many effective programs are not adopted.
