This eighth annual Student Outcome and Achievement Report (SOAR) provides information that can be used to track high school student outcomes at the state level. The SOAR system collects information about college performance of new high school graduates in Maryland, including: remedial work needed in math, English, and reading; grades in first math and English courses; and cumulative grade point average. Data about students' high school experiences are drawn from the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and the American College Testing (ACT) program. This report looks at students who graduated from a Maryland high school during the 1997-98 school year and who enrolled in a Maryland college or university during the 1998-99 academic year. All public two- and four-year campuses in Maryland and 11 state-aided independent institutions are included. The report contains four sections: the first examines the differences between college performance of students who did or did not complete a college preparatory curriculum in high school; the second presents the results of a multiple regression analysis which seeks to identify factors that best predict first-year college performance; the third examines trends in the data over the past five years; and the fourth, new to this year's report, presents the four-year graduation and transfer rates of students from Maryland community colleges and the five-year graduation rates of students from public four-year institutions on the basis of whether or not they took a college preparatory course of study in high school. Thirty-five tables summarize the data. (CH/EV)