College graduation rates for minority students are often shockingly low. Most institutions have significantly lower graduation rates for black students than for white students. This report demonstrates that these high-failure rates are not inevitable: Some institutions are graduating black students at a higher rate than white students. The report describes a comprehension program developed at Florida State University in 2000 called CARE (Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement) that helps low-income, first-generation college students succeed. Its overall philosophy is to identify every piece of information students might need or stumbling block they might encounter and help them through. The report finds that what distinguishes colleges and universities that have truly made a difference on behalf of minority students is that they pay attention to graduation rates. They monitor year-to-year change, study the impact of different interventions on student outcomes, break down the numbers among different student populations, and continuously ask themselves how they could improve. The report observes that the current system of incentives, which provides too few reasons to improve college graduation rates, is comprised of a series of interlocking funding systems, governmental relationships, and market forces that combine to give institutional leaders powerful incentives to make certain kinds of decisions and not make others. The report explains how those systems work and makes the following recommendations on how they could be changed: (1) change the rankings; (2) improve graduation rate measures; (3) improve state accountability systems; (4) change funding incentives; (5) improve accreditation; and (6) move back to need-based financial aid. Appended to this document are: (1) Four-Year Colleges and Universities with Small or Nonexistent Black/White Six-Year Graduation Rate Gaps, 2001-2006; and (2) Four-Year Colleges and Universities With Large Black/White Six-Year Graduation Rate Gaps, 2001-2006. (Contains 4 tables and 27 endnotes.)