This book presents the results and implications of a major new national study exploring the effects of institutional racial composition on African American students' development and their educational outcomes, taking into account individuals' background characteristics, their perceptions of the institutional environment, and their experiences in college. The federally funded National Study of Student Learning (NSSL), on which this book is based, analyzed the factors that influence student learning and cognitive development in college across a broad spectrum of institutional types of widely varying racial composition, and collected some nine hundred variables per student. This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the impact of attending a historically Black college or university (HBCU) or predominantly White institution (PWI) on African American students. The authors provide an effective balance of research-based evidence and practitioner-oriented recommendations of "best practices" for both HBCUs and PWIs. They address many unanswered questions about what institutional leaders at PWIs and HBCUs can learn from each other, as well as suggest fruitful directions for future research. Most importantly, they provide valuable insights and ideas to assist institutional decision-makers--student affairs professionals, institutional researchers, administrators and faculty--in developing appropriate strategies, as well as the empirical analysis necessary for formulating policy, decision-making and resource allocation. The table of contents contains the following: (1) Introduction; (2) Data Source and Methodology; (3) Pre-enrollment Characteristics of African American Students by Institutional Racial Composition; (4) Differences in African American Students' Academic and Social Experiences by Institutional Racial Composition; (5) Differences in African American Students' Educational Outcomes by Institutional Racial Composition; (6) Conditional Effects of Institutional Racial Composition; (7) Discussion of Major Findings; and (8) Implications for Policy and Practice.