The information that is currently collected on the nation's postsecondary institutions focuses primarily on quantity, addressing the need for descriptive information on students, faculty, and finances. This type of research, though necessary, is not sufficient for an understanding of the broader accountability issues emerging in the 1980's. Available data, when they do provide indices of student flow and outcomes, may grossly underestimate the institutional effectiveness of community, technical, and junior colleges. Many community colleges are attempting to gain a better understanding of their students by assessing: student educational objectives; the causes of student attrition and the extent to which it signifies student failure; and occupational and transfer outcomes. Sample research efforts in these four areas are briefly described in this review, including: (1) studies to determine student goals and intentions conducted at Glendale Community College (Glendale, Arizona) and Vista College (Berkeley, California); (2) follow-up studies of college dropouts conducted in the Los Rios Community College District (Sacramento, California) and at Butler County Community College (Butler, Pennsylvania) designed to disaggregate those who attained their goals from those who did not; (3) vocational follow-up research conducted at William Rainey Harper College (Palatine, Illinois) to determine vocational students' job attainment and the economic "rate of return" on vocational studies; and (4) transfer outcome assessments conducted in the San Mateo County Community College District (San Mateo, California) and at Piedmont Virginia Community College (Charlottesville, Virginia). (EJV)