This study evaluated the first phase of a three-phase project to improve baccalaureate achievement rates of minority students in Colorado. The activities of the first phase included gathering more and better data on the progress of students, analyzing those data, and using that analysis to choose and visit institutions that seem to be succeeding with minority students. The evaluation of the data gathering process for a Cohort Tracking System on student performance in Colorado institutions of public higher education indicated that Colorado had an effective decision-making support system for interfacing various data resources and that all available data from 1986 to 1990 could be loaded. During the first year of operation 3 years of data were loaded, resulting in approximately 175,000 master records on students. In addition, after the first year of use retention measures were developed and the capacity to produce a variety of types of reports and studies was established. Evaluation of the minority retention measures and their implementation found that few institutions had large entering cohorts of minority students and that retention needed to be defined differently for 4-year and community colleges. Evaluation of the campus visits found that, though certain campus efforts were important, faculty and administrators felt that, ultimately, solutions were beyond their control or out of their realm of responsibility. The report includes extensive appendixes that comprise the bulk of the document. They provide technical information on the development of the database and the retention measures, and include interview protocols. (JB)