The Task Force on Educational Credit and Credentials of the American Council on Education undertook a two-year study to determine how postsecondary education's system for awarding credit and credentials can be changed or its adequacy improved to meet today's educational and social needs. This book sets forth the Task Force's report and recommendations for improving the quality of information conveyed by educational credit and credentials (credits, certificates, diplomas, and degree documents), their educational and social uses, and other uses they should encompass, such as: indicators of qualifications in the work setting, prerequisites to licensing, recognition of prior learning for educational credit, information for improved counseling, measures for faculty workloads and the need for funds, awards for educational and personal development conducive to lifelong learning. The book addresses three audiences: leaders of postsecondary institutions; policy-makers in educational associations, government, or foundations; and the users of educational credentials, such as employers. Analytical papers used by the Task Force are included for such areas as current practices, student mobility and transfer, competence, assessing learning, and administrative uses of credit. Contributors are John Harris, William Trout, Jonathan R. Warren, Richard L. Ferguson, Donald P. Hoyt, Robert Kirkwood, and John Folger. (LBH)