As part of the Statewide Strategic Planning Process for California Community Colleges, the Center for Student Success, the research and evaluation organization of the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP/CSS) was asked to develop a series of overview documents that would outline both internal and external trends that are shaping the future of the System and its 72 community college districts. The RP/CSS Panel broke the task into two major components. The first component was a review of the national and state literature pertinent to education policy. This includes a review of recent studies in higher education, community colleges and K-12 schools to identify key issues and opportunities with implications for California Community College System Strategic Planning. The second component, a review of System-wide trends, looks at State MIS data for the past five years, as well as California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) and Department of Finance (DoF) trend data, with the purpose of identifying issues related to system performance, including access, progression of students, workforce development, graduation, basic skill development and transfer to other California segments. The most important findings of this review are: (1) If the system is to add some 478,000+ students over a ten year period ending in 2013, operational and capital funding needs must be realistically evaluated by the state and stabilized to support this growth; (2) The lack of resources and preparation at the K-12 level have serious implications for higher education in general, but particularly for community colleges that are on the front line of serving under-prepared students; (3) Community colleges will be challenged to serve the growing numbers of traditionally underrepresented minority students, many of whom are considered to be at-risk for non-completion of their programs of study; (4) More than one of every three students in California Community Colleges enrolls in a basic skills class and the proportion of students enrolling is ever-increasing; (5) A set of perennial weaknesses plague California education and inhibit responsiveness and reform: weak linkages across education sectors, from public schools to community colleges and universities; little incentive for collaboration across sectors; and, at all levels, few incentives and little accountability for local and regional collaboration among educational institutions; and (6) The analytical capacity of the system office is important to providing the infrastructure for data analysis that will diagnose the critical community college needs of the state. This report details these findings. [The compilation of the "Resource Handbook for Strategic Planning" and this "Summary of Key Issues Facing California Community Colleges, Pertinent to the Strategic Planning Process" which was developed from it, were prepared by a Panel of the Center for Student Success of the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP/CSS).].