Despite the growing contributions of community college institutes and associations to educational research, most university-based colleges of education still minimize the value of this research and often contain only one professor whose primary interest and/or expertise is community colleges. To address this issue, researchers should make efforts to raise the visibility of community college research within colleges of education by conducting research on essential characteristics and purposes of the colleges. In addition, colleges of education should be educated on the service mission of community college researchers. The key to improving the status of community college research is to place a primary emphasis on service and view teaching and research as vehicles to accomplish that service. Larger community college research programs, those with more than one full-time faculty member engaged in research on the colleges, should provide greater opportunities and avenues of service. Activities might include developing and disseminating a selected bibliography on recently completed doctoral dissertations related to community colleges, collecting and disseminating information related to the teaching of community college education, and developing a better data base of research on the field. Smaller programs can increase service activities through participation in national organizations, such as the Council of Universities and Colleges, to promote service to the field, discuss research, and share ideas regarding best practices. (TGI)