A study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC), in Florida, to measure the preparedness of Dade County Public School (DCPS) graduates for the state's community colleges and universities. Data was compiled from Basic Skills Tests taken by all first-time-in-college students attending Florida community colleges and universities during academic years 1991-92 and 1992-93. The analysis showed that the proportion of DCPS test-takers passing the mathematics, reading, and writing sections of the skills test decreased from 42.5% in 1991 to 39.4% in 1992, while the number of students not ready in all three areas increased 9.5%, from 4,097 in 1991 to 4,448 in 1992. Moreover, DCPS pass rates were lower than rates in the rest of the state for both years. Approximately 76% of the DCPS graduates attended MDCC, with the number of unprepared DCPS graduates at the college increasing by 113 in mathematics, 416 in writing, 453 in reading, and 346 in all subjects from 1991 to 1992. Given the institutional cost per credit hour for college prep courses of $57.10 in 1993, it is estimated that the underprepared DCPS graduates alone would add between $224,289 and $448,578 to the cost of education at MDCC during 1992-93. Finally, analyses by race and ethnicity also indicated that DCPS graduates in all categories performed worse than their counterparts in the state. (KP)