A study was conducted at St. Louis (Missouri) Community College (SLCC) to assess the extent to which data on nonreturning students represent retention problems, the achievement of non-degree goals, or the process of temporarily stopping out. Study findings, based on a 27% response to a summer 1986 survey of 1,706 fall 1985 students who did not re-enroll for the spring 1986 semester, coupled with demographic information from the college's student data system, included the following: (1) districtwide, only 16% of the nonreturning students had permanently dropped out without accomplishing their educational goals, 37% had achieved their goals, and 47% had not yet accomplished their goals, but planned to return to SLCC; (2) 24% of the full-time and 40% of the part-time nonreturning students had achieved their educational goals; (3) approximately 80% of the students who had been pursuing an associate in arts (AA) or associate in applied science (AAS) degree were classified as "stop outs"; and (4) students with a career training educational goal had the highest dropout rate (25%), followed by students with an certificate educational goal (22%), students with an AAS degree goal (20%), students with an AA degree goal (19%), students with a personal interest educational goal (14%), and students with an "improve job skills" educational goal (11%). The study report includes findings for the district as a whole and for each campus, along with a discussion of the implications of the study findings. (EJV)