Two-year institutions of higher education have, in many ways, been anomalies in America's educational enterprise. Vocational education studies and assessments completed in 1981, 1989, and 1994 have all treated postsecondary vocational education primarily as more advanced versions of secondary programs and minimized the differences. Compared to secondary vocational education programs, community colleges do the following: (1) serve a much broader range of student populations; (2) have a different relationship to their local economies and thus different customers and missions; (3) operate in a different competitive environment; (4) serve different customers; (5) exhibit greater variations among states and within states than do high schools; and (6) are freer to respond to changing economies and labor markets. Also, community college programs, curricula, and enrollments are driven by different forces. The upcoming National Assessment of Vocational Education presents an a opportunity to better understand the current nature of the community college enterprise by studying the following: (1) individuals' goals and expectations and the ways they use the system; (2) colleges' decisions concerning missions, alliances, and investments and businesses' use of and linkages to colleges; (3) the impacts of colleges on regional labor markets and economies and the effects of labor markets and economies on students; and (4) innovators and catalysts for innovation. (YLB)