First attempt at adding more explicit skip handling and removing the need for 'SimpleStepExecutor'. There's still some cleanup that needs to happen, but it's moving in the right direction.

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/Chunker.java

@@ -37,6 +37,6 @@ public interface Chunker extends ItemStream {
 	 * @return the {@link Chunk} that has been read.
 	 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if chunkSize is less than zero.
 	 */
-	public ChunkingResult chunk(int chunkSize, StepExecution stepExecution) throws ReadFailureException;
+	public ChunkingResult chunk(int chunkSize, StepContribution stepContribution) throws ReadFailureException;
 	
 }

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/Dechunker.java

@@ -35,11 +35,11 @@ public interface Dechunker extends ItemStream{
 	 * discretion of various implementations.
 	 * 
 	 * @param chunk to be 'dechunked'
-	 * @param stepExecution the chunk belongs to.
+	 * @param stepContribution the chunk belongs to.
 	 * @return a Dechunking result detailing whether or not dechunking was successful, and
 	 * if any items were skipped.
 	 * @throws Exception, specifically throws IllegalArgumentException if either the chunk
 	 * or StepExecution is null.
 	 */
-	DechunkingResult dechunk(Chunk chunk, StepExecution stepExecution) throws Exception;
+	DechunkingResult dechunk(Chunk chunk, StepContribution stepContribution) throws Exception;
 }

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/ItemFailureHandler.java

@@ -15,30 +15,32 @@
  */
 package org.springframework.batch.core.domain;
 
-import java.util.List;
-
-import org.springframework.batch.io.exception.WriteFailureException;
-
 /**
  * Interface for defining the contract to log out read and write
- * failures encountered during batch processing.  It is expected
- * that any failures encountered while writing will be
- * represented as {@link WriteFailureException}s, which contain
- * the items which caused the exception.
+ * failures encountered during batch processing. 
  * 
  * @author Lucas Ward
- *
  */
-public interface SkippedItemHandler {
+public interface ItemFailureHandler {
 	
 	/**
-	 * Handler the list of exceptions.  This will usually be done
+	 * Handle read failure.  This will usually be done
 	 * by logging out the details of the exception to either a
 	 * file or database table.  It is expected that any implementors of this
 	 * of this method will not throw an exception.
 	 * 
-	 * @param exceptions
+	 * @param ex
 	 */
-	void handle(List exceptions);
+	void handleReadFailure(Exception ex);
+	
+	/**
+	 * Handle read failure.  This will usually be done
+	 * by logging out the details of the exception to either a
+	 * file or database table.  It is expected that any implementors of this
+	 * of this method will not throw an exception.
+	 * 
+	 * @param ex
+	 */
+	void handleWriteFailure(Object item, Exception ex);
 
 }

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/ItemSkipPolicy.java

@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
  */
 package org.springframework.batch.core.domain;
 
-import org.springframework.batch.core.domain.StepExecution;
 
 /**
  * Policy for determining whether or not an item should be skipped.
@@ -29,9 +28,9 @@ public interface ItemSkipPolicy {
 	 * continue for the current step execution with the given throwable.
 	 * 
 	 * @param ex throwable encountered while reading
-	 * @param stepExecution currently running execution
+	 * @param stepContribution currently running execution
 	 * @return true if reading should continue, false otherwise.
 	 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if t or stepExecution is null
 	 */
-	boolean shouldSkip(Exception ex, StepExecution stepExecution);
+	boolean shouldSkip(Exception ex, StepContribution stepContribution);
 }

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/StepContribution.java

@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ public class StepContribution {
 	private ExecutionContext executionContext;
 
 	private int commitCount;
+	
+	private int skipCount;
 
 	/**
 	 * @param execution
@@ -96,5 +98,13 @@ public class StepContribution {
 	public boolean isTerminateOnly() {
 		return execution.isTerminateOnly();
 	}
+	
+	public int getSkipCount() {
+		return skipCount + execution.getSkipCount();
+	}
+	
+	public void incrementSkipCount(){
+		skipCount++;
+	}
 
 }

spring-batch-core/src/main/java/org/springframework/batch/core/domain/StepExecution.java

@@ -330,6 +330,7 @@ public class StepExecution extends Entity {
 		// TODO: this should not be necessary - the step decides
 		// executionContext = contribution.getExecutionContext();
 		commitCount += contribution.getCommitCount();
+		skipCount += contribution.getSkipCount();
 	}
 
 	/**