This monograph provides a comprehensive overview of community college education in the United States. Chapter I reviews the social forces that contributed to the development and expansion of community colleges and the continuing changes in institutional purposes. The changing patterns of community college student characteristics are the focus of Chapter II. Chapter III examines the faculty-related issues of full- and part-time staff, tenure, salary, workload, modes of faculty evaluation, professional associations, and teacher preparation. After Chapter IV explores changes in college administration with respect to institutional size, collective bargaining, available funds, and locus of control, Chapter V describes the various funding patterns used to finance community colleges. Instruction is considered in Chapter VI with focus on learning resource centers and the stability of instructional methods which has been maintained in spite of the introduction of new technologies. Chapter VII explores student services and personnel functions. Chapters VIII, IX, and X consider the positions of career, compensatory, and adult education in the community college curriculum. Chapter XI looks at the rise and fall of liberal arts education in the curriculum. Chapter XII traces the development of general education curricula, and Chapter XIII examines the social role of the community college. An annotated bibliography of major publications in the field is appended. (HB)