The extent and effectiveness of access to higher education requires careful assessment. Especially for students who have been previously excluded from higher education for noneducational reasons, the experience of dismissal or withdrawal can be cruelly frustrating. Because the benefits of a college education are not gained by getting into college but by getting through, an effort will be made to examine the sorting and routing processes that affect the academic progression of minority groups in a collegiate setting. Specific questions that need to be asked concern the placement and retention of minority groups and their retention-and-graduation from American colleges and universities. Closely tied to the questions of access, placement, retention, and graduation are policy issues involving educational barriers, role of black colleges, assessment programs and testing requirements, and programs for developmental studies. (Author/KE)