Student tracking systems are enabling increasing numbers of community colleges to respond to external demands for accountability with tangible measurements of student progress and institutional outcomes. Several recent trends in marketing, accountability, communications with students, and internal competition for resources have prompted interest in monitoring student progress. Six stages in the student flow process should be monitored: awareness of the college, first inquiry about the school, formal entry, the college experience, completion, and followup. Tracking systems can be developed for any one of these stages, but a number of decisions must first be made in order to collect, store, and disseminate the information that the college and its staff need. In addition to decisions about the purposes and organization of the tracking system, the designers must identify from the data elements routinely collected on each student those that are relevant to student persistence and outcomes. The American Association of Community and Junior Colleges has developed a student tracking model that identifies variables related to student characteristics, progress, and followup. While tracking systems offer many benefits, the potential for problems exists with respect to data collection, the institution's research capacity, follow-up information, and effective use of the information. Regardless of these difficulties, tracking is destined to become an integral part of community college management. (JMC)