The bulk of this issue consists of five articles providing insight into various phases of adult continuing education. "The Meliorist Position as a Philosophic Base for Adult Education" (Gordon Clay Godbey) examines these questions about meliorism: should we accept as natural improvement of the human condition, the constant wars, the hunger, the great extremes of wealth, the torture? and should there not be a greater idealism beyond the practice of adult education? Phyllis A. Dobson and Eileen E. Clancy point out in "Help for the Unemployed--Continuing Education" an extension from working with the disadvantaged, long the province of adult educators, to working with the displaced worker. "Adult Basic Education in Leningrad" (Susan Sparks Schuehler) considers how a Communist nation evaluates its mission in providing learning opportunities for adults. "Feasibility of Requiring and Delivering Certification for ABE Teachers in Pennsylvania" (Judith L. Cope) examines the rationale for certification. In "CLEP--An Indicator of Academic Achievement" Renee Smith Clark describes one community college's experience with CLEP (College-Level Examination Program). The Potpourri section contains brief items on defining literacy (Linda Brodkey), the rationale of adult education (Gordon Clay Godbey), "computerphobia" of adult educators (David L. Kantner), the adult external degree program (Jacquie Douglass and Mary C. Crawford), and a perspective for the Pennsylvania Association for Adult Continuing Education through 1983-84 (Barbara E. Hanniford). (YLB)