How to attract and retain adult students remains an enduring question for adult education providers. Recent research sheds light on adult learners' unique learning goals, needs, and aspirations and offers guidance on recruiting and retaining adult learners. Adult students' participation and persistence in educational activities is a complex phenomenon involving situational, dispositional, and institutional factors. Because adult participation is shaped by access to program information, recruitment should be viewed as a multistep process of drawing people into programs. Adult education providers must market their programs. Many view orienting adult students to educational programs as the first step toward retention. Adult students need full information about the relevant details of educational programs. Adults in distance education degree programs need information about the technology and procedures used to provide content and establish and maintain communication. Adult students also need information on services available to help them meet their individual needs. Early and continuous follow-up and attention, both inside and outside the classroom, form a constant theme in adult student retention. Beginning with recruitment, the adult learner should be seen as a partner in a learning process that builds on motivations, counsels rather than tests, emphasizes relevance, and recognizes resistance. (Contains 23 references.) (MN)