A study was conducted at St. Louis Community College to disaggregate statistics for fall 1985 nonreturning students by educational goal and full-time/part-time status in order to provide more meaningful data for both internal and external evaluation of student retention and outcomes. Study findings included the following: (1) the comparison of nonreturn rates for goal/status subsets indicated that goals and status each had substantial separate influences on nonreturn rates; (2) within each goal category, nonreturn rates for part-time students were approximately twice as large as those for full-time students; (3) associate in applied science and associate in arts degrees and general transfer were the goals of 82% of the district's full-time enrollment; (4) 18% of the full-time students and 34% of the part-time students with degree goals were nonreturners; and (5) findings for individual campuses differed somewhat from those for the district as a whole. The study report includes a discussion of the implications of the research and the importance of disaggregating return rates for students with different educational goals in accurately representing student outcomes. Numerous graphs and tables supplement the text. (LAL)