A three-year study was conducted to assess the success of recruitment, admission, education, and retention practices for black students in nursing schools. Data was collected from a total of 3,002 students and 469 faculty members representing twenty-seven diploma, associate, and baccalaureate schools in twelve states. Few nursing schools were found to be integrated (only schools with a minimum of ten percent black enrollment were considered integrated), and these schools were most often located in black neighborhoods and offered low tuition rates and two-year programs. No direct relationship was found between recruitment efforts and the size of black enrollment. Once a school was successful in recruiting and graduating large numbers of black nurses, it continued to attract qualified minority applicants. While the level of admission standards was assessed as having little influence on enrollment size, preadmission programs offered by the schools to give remedial assistance to black applicants succeeded in increasing the number of black students. Schools were more often interested in increasing minority enrollment rates than retention rates; only six of the twenty-seven surveyed were successful in both recruitment and retention efforts. The success of integrating the profession was found to be undermined by the belief of a majority of black students that discrimination exists in the nursing profession and that nursing professional associations are unresponsive to the needs of black nurses. (ELG)