Prior Learning Assessment, or PLA, is an important and often overlooked strategy for helping adults progress towards a degree. PLA is the process by which many colleges evaluate for academic credit the college-level knowledge and skills an individual has gained outside of the classroom (or from non-college instructional programs), including employment, military training/service, travel, hobbies, civic activities and volunteer service. PLA recognizes and legitimizes the often significant learning in which adults have engaged in many parts of their lives. With support from Lumina Foundation for Education, which works to ensure that 60 percent of Americans are college-educated by 2025, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) recently conducted a multi-institutional study on PLA and adult student outcomes. The study examined the records of 62,475 students at 48 colleges and universities, primarily in the United States but also in two Canadian institutions. Subjects were from the cohort of adult students (defined as all students aged 25 or above) who matriculated at these institutions in 2001-2002. The study followed their academic progress over the course of seven years. The data from 62,475 students at the 48 postsecondary institutions in this study show that PLA students had better academic outcomes, particularly in terms of graduation rates and persistence, than other adult students. Many PLA students also shortened the time required to earn a degree, depending on the number of PLA credits earned. PLA students in this study who did not earn degrees were more persistent in terms of credit accumulation than the non-PLA students. PLA students in this sample earned more institutional course credits, on average, than non-PLA students. PLA students in this study who did not earn degrees had stronger patterns of annual enrollment and credit-earning than non-PLA students who did not earn degrees. Appended are: (1) Participating Institutions; (2) Interview Subjects; and (3) Methodology. (Contains 64 figures, 9 tables and 4 footnotes.) [For "Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes. Executive Summary," see ED524752.]