A review of the available research relevant to the characteristics of disadvantaged rural students shows them to be affected in several areas. The low socioeconomic status of large numbers of noncorporate-farm families and rural ethnic minority groups is a characteristic of prime importance, particularly in view of the relationship between economic status and school achievement for rural as well as urban children. In addition, the educational and occupational aspirations of rural students appear to be negatively affected by their low economic status and possibly further depressed by factors related to geographic isolation. Many rural young people who will not be able to make a satisfactory living by farming do not aspire to higher-skilled urban occupations or to the educational level which would prepare them for such work. Possibly related to socioeconomic status are other attitudes found among rural children which may further hinder their progress: low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness in the face of seemingly unconquerable environmental handicaps, and impoverished confidence in the value of education as an answer to their problems. (Author/JH)