A project was designed to develop and test (phase I), and implement (phase II) a research design for the study of student attrition in the Wisconsin vocational technical adult education (VTAE) system with the intent of identifying student attrition and determining its predictability. Phase I, the developmental aspect (described in this report), involved identification of attrition and the predictive variables, methods for data collection, data analysis, and report format by a consortium of four Wisconsin technical institutes in fiscal year 1976. The institutes conducted individual attrition studies for their individual schools with the specific objectives of (1) identifying the extent of student attrition categories such as job-outs, transfers, failures, or socioeconomic withdrawal, (2) identifying background characteristics, ability factors, and self-concepts which predict student attrition, and analyze their effects on attrition, and (3) determining program deficiencies if any and recommendations for changes. Some of the consortium's major conclusions were that information on dropouts is often sketchy and that data which is available is not always reliable; students' reasons for dropping out are often unclear or unable to be verbalized even to the early leaver; much attrition is related to a lack of commitment or motivation on the student's part; student assistance for a change of direction is not readily available once a student is participating in a full-time program, and if it is available, it is not recognized by the student. Twenty-three recommendations are listed. The nine appendixes, which cover half the document, contain tabular information on student characteristics. (SH)