An appendix provides regression analyses.As the cost of higher education continues to climb, colleges and universities are finding themselves under increased pressure to demonstrate their value by enrolling, graduating and launching graduates into careers with the skills needed to compete as part of the American workforce. Few institutions are positioned with all of the resources required to support student success absent the public funding (be it student- or institution-based) that has long subsidized the cost of earning a college degree. These difficulties could not be truer of the fiscal environment in which historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) operate. For more than 150 years, HBCUs have played a significant role in providing access to postsecondary education for millions of blacks, many of whom currently come from low-income families and are first-generation college students. As pressures mount for all institutions of higher education to be more accountable for demonstrating favorable student outcomes (e.g., retention and graduation rates), HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions face unique challenges that have often been overlooked in evaluations of institutional performance in retaining and graduating students. In this report, the authors provide an empirically based case for why evaluations of institutional performance should account for factors--namely, student characteristics, given their strong association with student outcomes related to persistence and completion--that are traditionally excluded in most measures of institutional performance. An appendix provides details on regression analyses. [For "Understanding HBCU Retention and Completion: UNCF-Member Institution Supplement," see ED562058.]