Another Look at Rural-Nonrural Differences in Students' Educational Aspirations.

Abstract

Research suggests that rural youth have lowereducational aspirations than their nonrural counterparts. This discrepancy has important implications foreducational policy and for achieving equality ofeducational opportunity, and it has led some topropose that action is necessary to reduce the rural-nonrural variation. However, while the existence of an aspiration difference seemsclear, neither its magnitude nor thereason for its existence is similarly transparent. Before undertaking remedial actions, it is well to ascertain the nature of whatever discrepancy exists. That is the purpose of thispaper. We find that the rural-nonruraldifference in adolescents' educational aspirations is quite small, and that about half of this discrepancy can be attributed to thewell-established divergence in socioeconomic status between rural and nonrural families. Our analyses also suggest thatmuch-perhaps all-of the remaining difference derives from the slightly disparate occupational aspirations of rural and nonrural youth. We conclude that a goal to eliminate the smalldifference in rural-nonruraleducational aspirations is likely to beunachievable. The discrepancy'sroots lie in patterns of family dynamics that are largely beyond the reach of educators. If, however, the aim is simply toreduce the discrepancy, this might beaccomplished by raising the occupational aspirations of rural youth. However, that strategy has its ownproblems, most notably that it is likely to exacerbate the migration of talented youngpeople from ruralareas.