ABSTRACT
Given the fact that most adult basic education (ABE) stakeholders have always cared about, thought about, and talked about quality with regard to ABE, it is important to say why, when we began to think about a theme for the RISE conference, defining and improving quality still seemed like a fresh, provocative, and important topic on which to focus. We wondered if there would really be anything new to say. What we realized is that although questions about quality in adult literacy education--what it is, how to do it, and how to document it--might be the same now as they have always been, the context in which they are asked has shifted significantly in recent years. This has dramatically changed the discourse, the stakes, the challenges, and the opportunities. This chapter briefly traces the changes in the policy context that have had a significant impact on our evolving thinking about quality, and the way we respond to various stakeholders' expectations of it, and where we stand now with it. It concludes with a discussion of the ways in which the papers presented at the RISE conference help us think about the opportunities we now have to define and improve quality within the current climate.
