Two-year colleges have an important role in the educational and economic advancement of the United States, particularly during the current economic crisis. They offer access to higher education for economically and/or educationally impoverished students, as well as for those who have simply returned for further study. Two-year colleges provide academic training for those seeking to upgrade their skills to qualify for promotion or a new career. The colleges also have a crucial role in the recruitment, training, and professional development of STEM educators. How can community college faculty best help such a diverse group of students achieve a level of mathematical proficiency that will help them meet their personal, academic and career goals? What does research suggest about coursework that will facilitate the development of abstract reasoning skills that lead to proficiency in higher level academic and career-related problem solving? The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) indicates that educators should continue to search for strategies to address various issues such as choice of appropriate mathematics content, effective instructional strategies, use of technology, teacher preparation, and professional development for faculty and support staff (2006). Research and recent legislation (America COMPETES 2007) also promotes k-16 mathematics coursework alignment that impels all mathematics educators to know not only the content of the coursework they teach but "the connections of that content to other important mathematics, both prior to and beyond the level they are assigned to teach" (National Mathematics Advisory Panel 2008, p. 37). This exploration is thus guided by long-standing questions from k-16 mathematics educational research; it ends with questions for further research.