This compendium provides information on 39 promising practices in vocational adult education selected during the 1981-82 school year. Criteria for selection are to meet an identified need for a specific problem or target population, measurability of indicators of success, possibility of adaptation by others, and practicality of resources required for adaptation of the practices. Abstracts of promising practices are reported in alphabetical order by title. Each description provides this information: title, district/agency, descriptors, target audience, major objectives, overview, indicators of success, resources needed, and contact. Those practices recommended for replication are indicated by an asterisk. Three indexes are provided: areas of focus, locations of promising practices, and educational descriptors. Focuses of the promising practices include displaced homemakers, dropout prevention, employability skills, experiential learning, handicapped students, minority youth and adults, home economics, inservice education, learning disabilities, new or changing occupations, nursing assistants, nontraditional vocational areas, out of school youth and adults, prevocational exploratory programs, school-business collaborative efforts, school-community cooperation, sex equity, special needs students, trades-skill training, underemployed and unemployed adults, and vocational counseling. (YLB)