A study was conducted to investigate key aspects of community college operations in California and to provide a broad assessment of college programs and services. The study investigated questions related to finance and governance; student and faculty characteristics; and the colleges' transfer, vocational, and remedial education programs using the following information sources: interviews with almost 400 respondents at 33 community colleges; a review of available data and literature; discussions with expert panelists; an opinion survey conducted among a broad cross-section of knowledgeable observers; and interviews with selected community college leaders, academic and government agency experts, and members of the Sacramento policy community. Study conclusions indicate that: (1) community colleges are unusually flexible institutions with the capacity to adapt quickly to local needs; (2) they have many effective, and some outstanding programs and for the most part a competent and dedicated professional staff; (3) they have a long tradition of commitment to educational opportunity for all students; (4) their problems include transfer programs that need improvement, weak counseling and assessment programs, programs of special assistance for underprepared minorities that could be improved, vocational programs that emphasize specific skill training at the expense of broader competencies, no common standards for remedial courses and requirements, and faculty that could be more effective; (5) obstacles that prevent community colleges from utilizing their strengths effectively lie in the governance process, state finance formulas, uncertain funding levels, wide variation in academic standards, inefficient personnel rules, weak intersegmental coordination, and inadequate evaluation data. (AYC)