Rural girls, answering questions concerning educational and occupational aspirations, showed significantly higher educational aspiration, the same or higher occupational aspiration, and equal ranges of job choice, relative to boys. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings, and to status attainment models. (Author)

Describes the development, implementation, and initial evaluation of a program that aims to foster an expanded understanding of career options for women. This program, developed specifically for use in rural areas, was designed for adolescents of both sexes and is currently used in several regions of the United States. (Author/MLF)

Options was a two-year research and curriculum design project conducted at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) under a grant for the Women's Educational Equity Act Program Staff. The project completed the following: assessment of career-related perceptions and self-defined needs of rural young people in five different rural regions (Northern New…

Rural high school girls face a strong home-versus-career conflict stemming from traditional rural values and myths about women. They also face the reality of few local job opportunities, due to rural economic and value structures and to occupational sex-stereotyping. For the most part, rural secondary vocational education maintains its…

Selected pages of the four units in the rural high school career development and life planning curriculum have been adapted to reflect the conditions, characteristics, and people of the Appalachian South; the majority of the specific examples are drawn from Tennessee. The field-tested adaptation packet contains revised pages for both teaching…

Unit I of a 4-unit (9-12 week) career development and life planning program for rural high school students focuses on life in rural localities. Designed to last approximately 13 days, the unit uses student experience and supplementary data as a basis for discussion of the local area, its people and their roles, the advantages and disadvantages of…

Designed to last approximately 7 days, Unit II of a 4-unit career development and life planning program for rural high school students focuses on teaching students decision making skills to enable them to exercise more control over their time and energies. The unit introduces the decision making process; provides practice in applying the process…

Designed to last approximately 12 days, Unit III of the 4-unit life planning and career development curriculum for rural high school students focuses on skills application. Through experience simulation, students apply skills learned in Unit II to the information from Unit I; they project their future lives and simulate their responses to problems…

The field-tested packet has been designed to adapt the rural high school career development and life planning curriculum to the Northeast region of the United States. Selected pages and simulation activities from Units I-IV of the curriculum have been rewritten to reflect the area; the majority of the examples are from Vermont and New Hampshire.…

Conditions and characteristics of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho are reflected in the field-tested adaptation packet for the Northwest version of "Options," a four-unit career development and life planning curriculum for rural high school students. Selected examples, student activity sheets and teacher guide pages from the four basic…

The field-tested adaptation package for the Southwest version of the four-unit career development and life planning curriculum for rural high school students consists of selected pages and case studies from the basic teacher's guide and student activity sheets, adapted to the Southwest; most of the specific examples are from New Mexico. Adaptation…

The fourth and final unit in a 9-12 week life planning and career development program designed for high school students in rural areas uses imaginary case studies of rural women to involve students in solving complex life problems through simulation. Individual lessons in the 13-day unit focus on job search techniques (resumes, interviews, skills…