The California Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) provides a design for developing a method of measuring the identified competencies of local education agencies. It provides information about student placement, progress, and competency attainment in a format meaningful to the student, instructor, and program manager. Steps in setting up an assessment system are: (1) determining educational needs of populations to be served, (2) identifying the skills and competencies that meet these learners' needs, (3) incorporating these skills and competencies into an integrated curriculum, and (4) identifying curriculum materials and instructional strategies. Assessment provides data for making the following decisions about students: program placement, diagnosis of student instructional needs and learning style, monitoring of progress, and certification of student skill and competency attainment. Assessment provides data for making these decisions about programs: program effectiveness, teaching strategy effectiveness, curriculum and instructional validity, resource allocation, and staff development/personal needs. Key elements of CASAS include the CASAS competency list (competency statements within life skills content areas and for computational skills), the curriculum index and matrix (identification of instructional materials and specification of the appropriate program and level of instruction), the item bank (test items), and implementation workshops. (YLB)