The author discusses how faculty inquiry can inform and support classroom teaching and learning, as well as allow for better designed courses and programs. "Faculty inquiry" is a term that encompasses a range of practices that engage teachers in looking closely and critically at student learning for the purpose of improving their own courses and programs. As part of the larger scholarship of teaching and learning movement, it also involves going public with insights, experiences and results that other educators can evaluate and build on. The essay looks at how faculty inquiry has been mobilized to improve the teaching and learning of basic skills at a cluster of California community colleges participating in the Carnegie Foundation initiative on Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC). Appended is "Survey of Participants in Faculty Inquiry Groups" by Cheryl R. Richardson. (Contains 22 notes and 6 tables.)