Improved college completion rates are critical to the future of the United States, and states must have better data to understand the nature of the challenges they confront or target areas for policy change. The 2010-2011 National Governors Association (NGA) Chair's initiative, "Complete to Compete", recommends that all states collect data from all public, postsecondary institutions to report on a set of common measures of college completion that can be used to monitor system performance and inform future policy decisions. Recommendations pertaining to common college completion metrics were presented in "Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics". The purpose of this accompanying technical guide is to increase consistency and commonality across states in reporting benchmark data and measuring future progress in improving college completion and efficiency in higher education. Appendices include: (1) Definitions of Data Elements and Disaggregation Categories; (2) Participants at the CCA/NCHEMS/SHEEO Data/Metrics Convening; and (3) Members of the NGA Common College Completion Metrics Work Group. (Contains 1 footnote.) [For the accompanying report, "Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics", see ED512713.]