Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability in Adult Education

“This book does an excellent job of presenting the basics of evaluation and assessment important to all adult educators, along with the intricacies and details of evaluation and assessment in specific adult education situations. Assessing learners and evaluating content are critical to what we as adult educators do, and this book can help us to improve in these areas.”

Steven W. Schmidt, Professor and Program Coordinator, Adult Education Program, Department of Interdisciplinary Professions

East Carolina University

"Lilian H. Hill has assembled an amazing group of scholars and practitioners merging the roles of assessment and evaluation for sustainability in the field of adult education increasingly affected by the political economy of globalization and neoliberal era. This original work has taken us down some important pathways as adult educators and their programs face critical issues reflected in purposes and roles of adult education asserted through governmental policies and/or funding agencies. This book presents tools implementing assessment and evaluation purposely applied to adult education, through diverse perspectives, in multiple areas. This edited volume helps equip adult educators to validate and sustain adult learning and adult education programs. Highly recommended!"

Qi Sun, Associate Professor, Educational Psychology & Counseling Department

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

"Assessment, determining levels of student learning, and evaluation, judging program efficacy, are complicated when accounting for the desires and motivations of diverse adult learners. Through multiple viewpoints, this work addresses the intricacies of the processes that match the complexity of adult education while arguing for the control of these processes to be within adult education rather than imposed from outside. As “the purpose of assessment is to improve learning” (p. 18), the diversity within adult education means there needs to be variation in assessment. This book is recommended for adult educators who want to design effective assessments and evaluations. It is useful for those in the field who are creating new programs, those tasked with evaluating existing programs, and institutional and public policy makers. It is an effective classroom text, and it is a valuable tool for self-reflection for individuals who want to ensure their assessment and evaluation methods serve their adult learners. It is relevant for those who need to provide justification of their program’s efficacy."

Adult Education Quarterly