The purpose of the brief is to provide examples from two state education agencies in the United States who took a different path to systemic change through the use of the Active Implementation Frameworks (Fixsen et al. 2013a; Metz & Bartley, 2012). Both states received intensive implementation-informed support from the State Implementation and Scaling-up of Evidence-based Practices (SISEP) Center. The aim of the SISEP Center is to establish implementation and scaling capacity in a State Education Agency (SEA), its regional entities, its districts, and their schools to continuously support teacher practice and improve outcomes. Under optimal conditions, a simultaneous process of horizontal and vertical alignment occurs: horizontal alignment across the SEA to reduce duplication of efforts at the state level that often translates into burdensome duplication of efforts in districts and schools; vertical alignment as the state facilitates and resources a co-creative process with its regional entities, districts, schools, and stakeholders to design an implementation infrastructure. Everyone's efforts, horizontally and vertically, are focused on supporting state, regional, district, and school leaders, who in turn support continuous improvement of teacher skills to maximize academic and behavioral outcomes for all students. The benefits and challenges inherent in the separate approaches will be presented to offer the field a deeper understanding of organizational readiness for change and the importance of co-creation to engage benefactors from every level of the system to implement, sustain, and scale-up a practice with evidence (Metz, 2016; Tommeraas & Ogden, 2015).