Comprehensive plans for 19 states, in use or recommended at time of writing, were studied for this Monograph. It establishes a rationale for state master plans, analyzes relevant literature, tells who is doing the planning, describes the process of developing a plan and getting it adopted, examines the 19 plans for content, suggests ways to implement them, and identifies areas of needed research. The major purposes of a state master plan are to: show concern for the education of both adults and adolescents; define an organized system of higher education instead of a group of institutions; meet both universal and diverse needs; outline a minimum foundation program; help community self-assessment of educational needs; remove college development from political and local pressures; set priorities; insure coordination of all higher education; provide a basis for further planning; disclose areas of needed research; encourage and facilitate the systematizing of routine state services; encourage cooperative planning by both private and public schools for their mutual benefit; reveal inadequacies in current laws and prepare for new legislation; serve as a public relations instrument; and bring together laymen and professional educators in a common endeavor. The author finds it fortunate that, with state planning for the junior college needed as never before, more and more of it is under way. (HH)