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

Foreword—Amy D. Rose
Acknowledgments

Part One: Introduction
1) What and Why of Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability in Adult Education—Lilian H. Hill
2) Assessment of Learning in Adult Education—Lilian H. Hill
3) Program Evaluation in Adult Education—Larry G. Martin and Kevin Roessger

Part Two: Assessment and Evaluation Practices in Specific Areas of Adult Education Practice
4) The Gordian Knot of Adult Basic Education Assessment: Untangling the Multiple Audiences and Purposes—Alisa Belzer and Daphne Greenberg
5) Assessment and Evaluation Practices in Army Military Education—Royce Ann Collins, COL Ryan Welch, and James B. Martin
6) Assessment and Evaluation in Continuing Professional Education—Paul E. Mazmanian, Meagan W. Rawls, and J.K. Stringer
7) Assessment and Evaluation in Human Resource Development—Lilian H. Hill, Sharon E. Rouse, and Cyndi H. Gaudet
8) A Framework for Community Capacity Building: The Role of Assessment and Evaluation—Elizabeth A. Roumell, Corina Todoran, and Nima Khodakarami

Part Three: Assessment and Evaluation Practices for Adults in Higher Education 
9) Moving Beyond Positivism: Integrating Transformative Perspectives in Health Professions Education and Evaluation—Wendy M. Green
10) Assessment and Evaluation Practices in Adult Distance Education—Simone C.O. Conceição
11) Assessment and Evaluation Practices for Adult Students in Higher Education—Jovita M. Ross-Gordon and Royce Ann Collins
12) Assessment Practices in Higher Education with Implications for Graduate Adult Education—Mary V. Alfred and Patrice B. French
13) Preparing Higher Education Faculty to Conduct Quality Assessment of Student Learning—Natalie Bolton and E. Paulette Isaac-Savage

Part Four: Conclusion
14) Using Assessment and Evaluation to Advocate for Adult Education Programs—Lilian H. Hill

Editor and Contributors
Index

Lilian H. Hill

Lilian H. Hill is professor of adult and higher education at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her research interests are in adult health learning and health literacy, professional education, and assessment and evaluation. She has held executive-level positions for the Commission of Professors of Adult Education of the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education and served as coeditor of Adult Learning in 1994–2005 and 2020–2023. Hill served on the assessment committees of two universities, and her past administrative roles have involved assessment, evaluation, and accreditation responsibilities. She was recipient of the 2015 Okes Award for outstanding Research in Adult Education; was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education in 2018; and was selected for the UGA Circle of 50, honoring 50 alumni for the 50th anniversary of the Adult Education Program in 2019.