Student promotion, repetition, and dropout rates constitute the basic data needed to forecast future enrollment and new resources. Information on student flow is significantly related to policy formulation aimed at improving internal efficiency, because dropping out and grade repetition increase per pupil cost, block access to eligible school-age children, and prevent students from gaining an adequate education. Although studies conducted in many Third World countries have shown that student enrollment information collected by education ministries is fairly reliable, most countries underestimate grade repetition rates, because reliable data is absent. One method for calculating the number of repeaters that is not based on school data is the age/grade method. The basic assumption is that enrollment data by age and grade sent to education ministries is more accurate than the repetition data. Cuadra's paper describes a 1986 study conducted in Honduras that tested this model by comparing school records of 327 students with data obtained from interviewing the students' parents. The study determined the accuracy of the age/grade method for reporting basic enrollment information and found that school statistics consistently underreported the number of repeaters. By underreporting repeaters, schools also overestimated the number of dropouts. Other implications are discussed. Two other papers discuss alternative methods for estimating student flow rates in the absence of sufficient data. (52 references) (MLH)