The issue of assessing adult learning prior to formal college level study is examined and presented in this handbook. The handbook offers guidelines for setting standards, provides a review of some of the proven techniques and practices that have been used to evaluate previous learning, addresses a series of issues relevant to particular subject matter areas, and gives examples of working institutional models and new initiatives in the recognition of prior learning. Discussions of assessing adult learning are presented within the following chapters: "Experiential Learning and Assessment" (Susan Simosko), "Assessment Techniques" (Susan Simosko); "Using Examinations to Award Credit for Prior Learning" (Paul Jacobs and Kate Gulliver); "Issues in Assessing the Liberal Arts" (Susan Simosko and Graham Debling), "Issues in Assessing Occupational and Technical Subjects" (Patricia Dewees); "Issues is Assessing Business" (Michael Mark); "Issues is Assessing the Performing Arts" (Anne Bielawski and Margaret Dunn); "Assessment of Professionals" (Donna L. Queeney); "Institutional Models: Whys and Hows of Prior Learning Assessment" (Harriet Cabell and Jerry H. Hickerson); "Prior Learning Assessment in the United States: Institutional Models" (Norman Evans); "Prior Learning Assessment in Quebec Colleges" (Robert Isabelle and Francine Landry); and "Learning Theory and the Benefits of Assessment" (Barry Sheckley). References follow most chapters. (GLR)