The community college mission includes such diverse goals as preparing students for job entry, teaching literacy, and satisfying students' personal interests. Measuring the colleges' transfer rates by no means tacitly elevates the transfer function above these other functions; it merely helps institutions estimate the effects of interventions on student progress in that area. Many methods of estimating transfer rates have been used. Dividing the number of transfers in a given year by total two-year college enrollment produces a transfer rate of about 5%, while considering students who enter community colleges directly from high school, attend full-time, declare transfer intent, and obtain an associate degree, may result in a transfer rate approaching 85%. The transfer rate should be defined as all students entering the community college in a given year who have no prior college experience and who complete at least 12 college-credit units, divided by the number of that group who take one or more classes at a university within 4 years. Using this definition, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) in Los Angeles, California began, in 1989, soliciting annual data from a national sample of two-year colleges. In 1992, the institutional data were supplemented by data from state agencies to determine which students had completed coursework at a four-year institution. By March 1993, the CSCC had received data on student transfer from more than one-third of public two-year colleges nationwide. The study found a consistent transfer rate of approximately 22% for each cohort of students entering a two-year college from 1984 through 1987. Data tables are included. (PAA)