What follows is a quick description of how this Handbook is organized. Much of the handbook is for individuals and teams working on a particular study; section VI concerns institutional strategies creating what some have called a culture of assessment or a culture of evidence: how can institutions encourage and support their staff in using evidence to improve outcomes?

Section I: This first section deals with the most basic of questions - why do a study?

Section II: If you already know what you're going to study, you might skip this section because it is mainly directed to people who want to use evidence to improve practice but who haven't yet decided on what to focus.  Everyone, however, should find it useful to read "Focus on What You Fear?" 

Section III: "Concepts to Organize Your Study," contains some ideas - a grammar, if you will, to help you conceptualize your study. All the specialized guides in Section V are organized around the concepts explained in this section. The most important of these precepts: separate what people do from the technology and resources with which they do it, and then focus on what they do -- what we call the 'activities.' This section illustrates why it can be useful to make this distinction, and then to organize your inquiry around activities.

Section IV, "Hints for Doing a Study," deals with the process of organizing your inquiry: methods, getting advisors, dealing with skeptics, and so on. Everyone should read the Flashlight Oath periodically.

Section V, "Guides." These chapters each apply the ideas developed in the first four sections to a specific problem. These topics are listed in alphabetical order. What's missing? Would you like to write a new chapter for this section? add your own study as an example to one of the existing chapters?

Section VI, "Institutional Strategies." What steps can institutions take over a period of years to help more and more of their staff, and more of their departments and offices, to use data to improve practice and outcomes?

Section VII - "Attachments".  Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Flashlight are included here. We're also beginning to build anthologies of case studies that embody Flashlight ideas (whether or not they were done with our tools or by our staff) and articles that help flesh out important ideas. Do you have suggestions for either of these anthologies?

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