One of a series of papers developed as part of a project to improve planning and evaluation in community colleges, this working paper discusses the outcomes approach to evaluation in higher education and describes current projects utilizing outcomes measures in community colleges. Section I defines the outcomes approach as an analysis of the end products of organizational activities, cites prior attempts to create models and concepts for outcomes research in higher education, and presents an outcomes typology that categorizes research and writing. Section II discusses the relationship of outcomes evaluation to community and junior colleges and describes different types of learner outcomes (i.e., concrete learner outcomes such as transfer, degree attainment, and employment and income; abstract learner outcomes such as cognitive and affective development; and social learner outcomes such as benefits to the local community and to society at large). Section III reviews the ways in which the outcomes evaluation approach is currently being used in the evaluation and operation of postsecondary institutions, focusing on the standardized testing and measurement of outcomes, attempts to refine the concept of outcomes in postsecondary education, and the use of the approach in institutional management and the creation of funding formulas. Finally, the last section summarizes the current issues in outcomes evaluation. (HB)