Research was conducted to develop and gather evidence of validity for a normative process model to be used by community adult education councils in establishing priority among community-level needs. The study design was based on a five-stage problem solving, systems model involving exploration, model building, design and development, validation, and implementation. A prototype process model utilizing a rating scale was developed to determine priorities based on (1) contribution to goals--the goal's importance to the need and the need's contribution to the goal definition, (2) magnitude of discrepancy--discrepancy between the present and valued future situation, (3) immediacy--immediacy of attention the need requires, (4) instrumental value--effect meeting one need has on meeting other needs, (5) resource availability--current resource availability for meeting the need, and (6) commitment to change--relevant publics' commitment to eliminating discrepancies between the present and future situation. The decision-making body assigns weights to the criteria. Judgments using individual criteria are made on a 0-10 scale. Twenty-one research questions were formulated covering the five dimensions of model validity. It was concluded that the model must be refined but that it holds promise as a tool for prioritizing needs. (The supplementary materials contain information on the criteria and rating scales.) (CSS)