A comprehensive profile of the adult learner and his or her literacy performance was educed by examining factors that are manifestations of both the formal school experience and the environment. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the tenability of 10 research hypotheses that each included one of the 10 literacy subtests of the Adult Performance Level Assessment. A secondary analysis was performed across sex and race subgroups to determine if the hypotheses were valid for those groups. Data were collected using four instruments: a demographic questionnaire, the Adult Performance Level Assessment, the Wesman Personnel Classification Test, and the Moos Family Environment Scale. The final sample was comprised of 76 adult basic education students attending a four-week summer school session in Montgomery county, Maryland. Four hypotheses involving literacy performance in community resources, consumer economics, government and law, and identification of facts and terms were accepted. The secondary analysis revealed that the selected factors had a differential influence on literacy performance for sex subgroups but not for race subgroups. The most important finding was that the environmental perceptions significantly influenced each of the 10 performance subtests. (Author/YLB)