The focus of this paper is on the development of a model for assessing community educational needs, referred to as the Needs Assessment Project (NAP). The model's primary purpose is to classify, organize, and assign priority to community needs, so that the educational system can assign these needs to the proper administrative unit for changes to be planned and implemented. The NAP is first developing a process or tool to ascertain the educational needs of the people in each community, using one college area to develop and test the model. The data collection for the simulation of the model has begun and will continue as the model is refined with the most relevant factors. The model (or prototype) work will be in two areas: the community as a service area, and the college as a training institution for the total community. Some of the factors that should be studied in analyzing educational needs include future school population projections in each program area, planned traffic patterns and transportation networks, land use changes and land costs, basic demographic characteristics, planned industrial suburb movement, shifting community interests, new skills needed, and changing economic emphasis. Because the initial model will be related directly to assessment of job needs in terms of education, a quantified method will be developed to analyze the economic job market. The following year, the job need portion of the model will be expanded to include college transfer programs, adult basic education, community interests, programs in social cultural areas, and general education. (DB)