Achievers, Stayers, Seekers, and Others: Residential Aspirations Among Rural High School Students

• In Event: Rural Education and Youth

Abstract

An extended body of work has documented the outmigration of the “best and brightest” young people from rural areas. At least some of this work has suggested the ways in which secondary education may be complicit in this process as educators devote extra attention and resources to the highest achieving students – and not coincidentally those most likely to leave their rural communities after high school. Using nationally representative survey data, we find that in many rural areas, attachment to community is highest among highest achieving students. We also find expectations among adults – and aspirations among young people – for outmigration and, ultimately, rural return.

Authors

• Kai A. Schafft, The Pennsylvania State University

• Robert A. Petrin, The Pennsylvania State University