In response to a request from the 1992 Florida State Legislature, Miami-Dade Community College (M-DCC) participated in a longitudinal study of college preparatory instruction. M-DCC student testing and outcomes data were collected for four cohorts of first-time-in-college students enrolling in fall terms 1986 through 1989. Highlighted findings included the following: (1) over the 4 years studied, a constant two-thirds of entering M-DCC students needed college preparatory work (CPW) in one area or more; (2) 80% of Black non-Hispanics, 64% of Hispanics, and 60% of White non-Hispanics required CPW; (3) although most students requiring remediation began CPW (between 73% and 84% depending on the year and subject area), less than two-thirds completed their CPW; (4) 81% of the students who completed CPW in reading and writing had grades of C or better in later English courses, compared to 86% of the students who did not require CPW; but in mathematics courses, college preparatory completers continued to lag behind (59% vs. 72% with a C grade or better); (5) after 5 years, 64% of the students who completed CPW in reading and writing had either graduated, were still enrolled, or had left with a satisfactory grade point average; (6) the graduation rate was nearly twice as high for those never needing CPW; and (7) over 40% of M-DCC graduates over the past 3 years had entered the college needing college preparatory instruction. A discussion of the implications of study findings, 25 data tables and figures, and the data collection form are included. (Author/MPH)