Community colleges play an important role in the U.S. economy, providing access to higher education for low-income young people, a path to higher-earning employment for low-income workers, and a supply of well-trained employees for local industry. In order to remain competitive with other major economies, however, the U.S. must sharply increase its supply of educated workers over the coming decade. Accordingly, policymakers and private foundations have set ambitious goals for improving the rate at which Americans earn college credentials. To meet these goals, community colleges will have to increase both the number of students they serve and the rate at which those students graduate. The goal of the "Community College Research Center (CCRC) Assessment of Evidence Series" is to help community colleges identify concrete strategies that have the potential to improve student success on a scale needed to meet national goals for increased postsecondary attainment. Working papers in the "CCRC Assessment of Evidence Series" use the research literature to draw conclusions and provide concrete evidence-based recommendations to practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in eight major topic areas: (1) Developmental Assessment and Placement; (2) Developmental Acceleration; (3) Developmental Mathematics Pedagogy; (4) Contextualization of Basic Skills Instruction; (5) Online Learning; (6) Non-Academic Support; (7) Institutional and Program Structure; and (8) Organizational Improvement. In this introduction to the series, the authors describe their approach in reviewing the literature and discuss the primary theme of "organizational redesign" that weaves through each of the eight working papers. (Contains 3 footnotes.)