This manual documents procedures for implementing and maintaining LONESTAR, a computerized student tracking and follow-up system for Texas public community colleges. The system is designed to provide reports on the instructional effectiveness of each institution and on the effectiveness of remediation as a primary access point to higher education; and to collect accurate information on student retention, persistence, and enrollment behavior to support local planning. System specifications include: (1) a common method for defining and identifying the types of students to be tracked; (2) common procedures for determining how individual student tracking records should be constructed, handled, and maintained; (3) a set of commonly defined and coded data elements; and (4) common analytical procedures for producing reports. In addition to describing the basic design parameters of the system, the manual outlines procedures for assembling required data from existing institutional records, establishing longitudinal tracking files, and updating files. The manual also describes each report produced by the tracking system, including institutional reports designed to provide policy and planning guidance and state reports designed to communicate statistics on cohort progress and the effectiveness of remediation. These reports are described in terms of layout and required calculations. Finally, brief guidelines are presented for interpreting and analyzing tracking data for institutional purposes. (AJL)