The processes and kinds of sources used in comprehensive educational planning employing institutional research are described to serve as a guide to provide recurrent education for a middle-aged population. The concept of lifelong learning has been addressed by postsecondary institutions because the traditional-aged college population has been declining in numbers. Long-range planning has been conducted by the San Diego Community College District to provide services through its evening college and adult and continuing education program. Forecasts of demographic and economic change into the 1990s and feedback from college staff, students, and citizens provided a sense of the value preferences of the people. The impact of the Jarvis-Gann initiative, which required that programs must be rigorously justified as a public benefit to merit public tax subsidies, was felt on the short-term and long-term planning perspective. It is proposed that the vital foundation of institutional research in the planning context are reasonable forecasts of demographic, economic, and social change into the future appropriate to the kind of planning problem. (SW)